Police Have Video of Deadly Penn State Frat Pledge Party

Timothy Piazza, 19, died after an alleged hazing ritual involving alcohol at the fraternity, school officials said

Police have video from a Penn State fraternity pledge party where a pledge from New Jersey was fatally injured in a fall down stairs.

The Beta Theta Pi house had an extensive surveillance system.

Penn State's vice president for student affairs tells Philly.com this was "a hazing ritual and it involved the gross misuse of alcohol."

Police have said 19-year-old Timothy Piazza, of Lebanon, New Jersey, was among about a dozen pledges at a Feb. 2 pledge acceptance ceremony when the fall occurred. Help wasn't summoned until the next day, and Piazza died at a hospital Feb. 4.

Jim and Evelyn Piazza said authorities told them the video showed their son at one point getting off a couch where he had been placed after falling.

The fraternity, which has been shut down, says in legal papers that it provided the video without a warrant, and with an understanding that, after it was copied, it would be returned.

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