Timothy Piazza’s Family Says Penn State Fraternity Brothers 'Left Him For Dead' During Hazing

The father of a Penn State fraternity pledge who died after a night-long hazing ritual is speaking out about fraternity culture, hazing and the young men charged in connection with his son’s death. Timothy Piazza’s father said during an interview Wednesday with New Jersey radio station 101.5 that the men in the fraternity his son was pledging were “not his brothers.”

“Let’s be clear,” Jim Piazza told host Steve Trevelise. “They were not his brothers. He was not part of the fraternity yet. I question whether he would have made it through once he got to know the individuals of that particular fraternity.”

Read: Timothy Piazza’s Father Recalls ‘Eerie Coincidence’ During Son’s Hazing Death

Timothy died Feb. 4, 2017, after a night of pledging at the Beta Theta Pi house in which he was involved in a hazing ritual known as “the gauntlet.” Security footage from the fraternity house revealed that Piazza fell down a flight of stairs and repeatedly lost consciousness throughout the night without any brothers calling 911. Instead, some members of the fraternity poured liquid on him and slapped him in an attempt to rouse him. Nobody called for help until 12 hours after Timothy initially fell down a flight of basement steps.

Eighteen members of the fraternity were charged in connection to Timothy’s death.

“They left him for dead,” said Jim. “They treated him like roadkill and a ragdoll throughout the night and they were just not good guys.”

Jim also said he was unsatisfied with the way the university handled his son’s death.

“From the first time I met with the president of the university, he pretty much said that particular fraternity was a farce and that they had been doing things for a long time without the university knowing,” he said.

Penn State President Eric Barron announced Wednesday the formation of a new 20-member advisory group that included faculty, students, trustees and other members to oversee changes to Greek life at the university.

“We are going to take much more control of the Greek system,” Barron said earlier in June. “We must mitigate the bad while doing our best to save those elements that we know, historically, have been important for student success.”

While Timothy’s father said the university had done “some positive things so far,” he also said they had a long way to go.

“I think they’re trying to wait it out,” he said. “But we’re not going away. We have an obligation to all the people who have kids going to college. I’m very motivated to make Penn State do the right things and the administration needs to step up.”

In the meantime, Jim has become a national spokesman against hazing.

“Hazing is illegal,” he said. “It shouldn’t be out there and I think young men in schools feel entitled that they can do it and it was done to them and I think this particular group of kids, they took it to a different degree overall.”

The family has also started a foundation in Timothy’s honor, called the Timothy J. Piazza Memorial Foundation. The organization aimed to raise money for people who needed prosthetic devices, a cause close to Timothy’s heart.

Read: Timothy Piazza ‘Looked Like A Corpse’ Before Fraternity Hazing Death

“His career ambition was to earn this undergraduate degree and then attend graduate school with the hopes of one day developing state of the art prosthetic devices to help those who most desperately needed them,” the foundation said in a mission statement on its Facebook page. “His personal goal was to one day start a family of his own while continuing to give back to the community, be a good friend and continue to find ways to put a smile on people’s faces.”