The father of a Penn State fraternity pledge, who died after a hazing ritual in February, recalled an eerie coincidence that occurred as his son lay gravely injured at the foot of the fraternity house’s basement steps.

Timothy Piazza’s father, James Piazza, recalled how he was speaking to a Rutgers University student that very morning.

James Piazza happened to be giving the student career advice, unaware of what was happening to his son at the same moment. The student mentioned he had pledged a fraternity at Rutgers the semester before.

Read: Timothy Piazza 'Looked Like A Corpse' Before Penn State Hazing Death

“He said Rutgers didn’t haze too much,” James Piazza told NJ Advance Media in an interview at his home Tuesday. “But he had to get signatures from a sister house at Penn State. They made him drink with them. He said, ‘They haze pretty hard at Penn State. People die from hazing’… While he is saying that, Tim is lying at the bottom of the steps at Penn State.”

Timothy Piazza died in February after a hazing ritual at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity known as “the gauntlet.” Testimony and security footage revealed that he was in a clearly deteriorated condition, falling down a flight of steps repeatedly and going in and out of consciousness for 12 hours before any of the brothers called 911 for help.

“That young man was sent to me that morning to tell me my son was going to die,” James Piazza said.

He recalled how the Rutgers student called him after his son’s death to express condolences.

“I told him, ‘I feel connected to you,’” James Piazza said. “He said, ‘I wasn’t sure I believed in God before, but I believe in him now.’”

Eighteen fraternity brothers were charged in connection with Timothy Piazza's death, 16 of whom had a hearing earlier in June to determine if there was enough evidence for the case to continue to trial. The hearing was set to continue in July, but some of the brothers could face up to 20 years in prison should the case go to trial and are convicted.

“I’m not sure I’d want to say anything to them,” said James Piazza, when asked how he would respond to the fraternity members if he saw them. “Other than, ‘You killed my son, why do you think that’s okay? Your parents and your friends are also wondering why you killed that young man and never helped him.’”

During the preliminary hearing for the students, Penn State police detective David Scicchitano spoke about the surveillance video taken at the fraternity house on the night of the hazing ritual.

“He looked dead,” the detective said of Timothy Piazza’s appearance. “He looked like a corpse.”

Read: Hazing Death Of Timothy Piazza Was 'Murder' And 'Torture,' Parents Say

Timothy Piazza's parents said they were told by the doctor at the hospital that their son would have lived had he been brought in earlier.

“What happened throughout that night was just careless disregard for human life,” James Piazza told NBC in May. “They basically treated our son as roadkill and a ragdoll. This wasn’t boys being boys. This was the murder of our son. They tortured him for 12 hours. They let him suffer for 12 hours. He died a slow and painful death at the hands of these ‘men of principle,’ as they call it.”

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