A 19-year-old Baruch College freshman who died in a brutal fraternity hazing ritual on a winter retreat to the Poconos has been declared a homicide victim, authorities said on Friday.
The finding by the Luzerne County, Pa., Coroner’s Office ramps up the potential severity of the charges against his classmates who took part in the lethal initiation rite, Pocono Mountain Regional Police Chief Harry Lewis told NBC News he will meet with the Monroe County District Attorney’s office next week to determine how to proceed.
Pi Delta Psi pledge Chun “Michael” Deng, 19, was forced on Dec. 8 to sprint blindfolded with a weighted backpack across the yard of a house, in the cold, while other members of the Pi Delta Psi fraternity tackled him repeatedly.
Deng and three other pledges were being initiated at a house in Tunkhannock Township, Pa., about 100 miles west of New York City, used by the Baruch chapter of Pi Delta Psi.
As many as 30 students were at the house for the weekend.
When Deng collapsed, he was carried inside, but nobody with him called 911, and an hour or more lapsed before the stricken pledge was driven to a hospital 30 miles away, authorities said at the time.
Deng was placed on life support but died the next day of what authorities called “major brain trauma.”
“He got tackled too many times,” Monroe County District Attorney E. David Christine said at the time.
Afterward, Baruch College permanently banned the campus chapter, and the national Pi Delta Psi organization revoked the Baruch chapter’s charter.
Efforts by the Post to reach Pi Delta Psi national officers on Friday were unsuccessful.
How much collateral damage the tragedy will wreak on elite students and families connected to the college and the fraternity is still a mystery. In January, the brother of U.S. Rep. Grace Meng was described as “a person of interest” in the investigation, a Pennsylvania law enforcement source told the Post.
Andy Meng, 28, the younger brother of the Flushing Democrat and, at the time, the president of the Pi Delta Psi national fraternity —could face charges if he helped delay medical treatment for Deng, the source said in January.
.
Pocono Mountain Regional Police and the Monroe County district attorney were examining phone records that show Meng, who was not at the house at the time, in contact with the Baruch frat boys “immediately after” the hazing, the source said.
Meng, 28, of Bayside, is also being probed for whether or not he ordered the destruction of evidence after the incident.
It was Meng who announced in a Dec. 16 statement that “Baruch Colony has violated the values and rules of our organization, including our strict no-hazing policy,”: adding, “As such, they shall no longer be recognized as having any association with Pi Delta Psi.”
He is no longer listed anywhere on the fraternity’s Web site on the leadership pages that include the fraternity’s national executive board, national cabinet, regional director of chapter services, and board of directors.
The national fraternity describes itself on Facebook as a cultural group promoting “Asian Awareness” as well as “the continual growth and development of the individual through Academic Achievement, Cultural Awareness, Righteousness, Friendship and Loyalty while fostering ethical behavior, leadership, and philanthropy.”