An LSU fraternity death's investigation suggests that an 18-year-old pledge may have been forced to drink "in excess" during a hazing ritual, according to a police search warrant filed Monday.
Maxwell Gruver died Sept. 14, the day after what was called a "Bible Study" event at Louisiana State University's Phi Delta Theta fraternity, where pledges allegedly were forced to drink if they incorrectly answered questions about the fraternity, police charged, according to the Baton Rouge Advocate.
"Hazing sure is a potential charge that is being considered, but there are other charges being considered," East Baton Rouge district attorney Hillar Moore told the Advocate, but declined to say what other charges are being eyed.
After Gruver's death, LSU cancelled all fraternity and sorority activities on campus indefinitely and created a task force to take an "exhaustive look" at past and current Greek life and other student organization activities, a statement from the university said. The statement, issued Sept. 29, stated that some of the restrictions have since been lifted.
"Many of our Greek organizations represent all that is good about our university," LSU President F. King Alexander, said in the Sept. 29 statement. "They volunteer, fundraise for charities and provide opportunities for students to make lifelong connections that extend far beyond their time at LSU.
"However, a small minority of these groups engage in behavior that undermines all these benefits, and that will be identified and discontinued," he added.
The East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner's Office told ABC News that Gruver had no internal or external trauma but had excessive fluid in the lungs and brain with a "highly elevated blood alcohol level plus the presence of THC."
One witness told ABC News that Gruver, a freshman from Roswell, Georgia, was "highly intoxicated" when fraternity members left him on a couch inside the fraternity house early Sept. 14. Fraternity members found him later that morning with a faint pulse and it was not clear if he was breathing, police said, according to the network.
Police confiscated video recording equipment and "multiple bottles of hard liquor" at the fraternity house as part of the investigation, the search warrant stated, per ABC News.
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