A Baruch College freshman's death during a weekend trip with a campus fraternity has been classified as a homicide, NBC News reports.
19-year-old Chun Hsien Deng reportedly died following a bizarre fraternity pledging ritual called "Glass Ceiling" or "The Gauntlet." According to The New York Times, this ritual "involves blindfolding a person and placing a heavy item on his back." The pledge then has to find his way to someone calling for him while being tackled by fraternity members.
According to NBC News, "Court documents have detailed how pledges wearing blindfolds and sand-filled packs were pushed and shoved in the freezing dark" during the December trip.
The New York Daily News reports that "The declaration of homicide means some of the fraternity brothers will likely face murder charges." Deng was one of four pledges taken on the weekend trip by the Pi Delta Psi chapter, an Asian cultural organization.
Fraternity members allegedly waited an hour to take Deng — who was unresponsive and suffered major brain trauma — to the hospital, where he later died.