ORLANDO, Fla. — Thirteen people were charged Wednesday in the hazing death of a Florida A&M University drum major severely beaten during a ritual, a prosecutor said.
The charges were announced more than five months after 26-year-old Robert Champion died aboard a chartered bus parked outside an Orlando hotel following a performance. The case has exposed a harsh tradition among marching bands at some colleges across the U.S. and brought more scrutiny to them.
Champion was severely beaten by band members in November and had with bruises on his chest, arms, shoulder and back, authorities said. Witnesses told emergency dispatchers Champion was vomiting before he was found unresponsive.
State Attorney Lawson Lamar said 11 of the 13 people will face a charge of hazing resulting in death, a third-degree felony. If convicted, they could face up to nearly six years in prison. The other two people will face misdemeanor charges.
The names of those charged will not be released until they are all arrested, Lamar said. It was not immediately clear whether they were all band members.
Hazing has long been a problem in marching bands, particularly at historically black colleges in the South, where a spot in the band is coveted and revered as much as in the sports teams.
Champion’s parents have sued the bus company owner, claiming in a lawsuit that the bus driver stood guard outside the bus while the hazing took place.
One type of alleged hazing described in the lawsuit involved pledges of a band clique known as “Bus C” running from the front of the bus to the back while other band members slapped, kicked and hit them. A pledge who fell was stomped and dragged to the front of the bus to run again.
