Investigation of fraternity fight goes on

Twenty-one interviews and almost three weeks after a fight broke out between brothers of the… Twenty-one interviews and almost three weeks after a fight broke out between brothers of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and students who identified themselves as football players, Pitt police Chief Tim Delaney is still working to figure out the details of what happened and whether criminal charges will be filed.

“The investigation is progressing with the cooperation of the parties involved,” Delaney said Monday.

The April 16 fight, which occurred at the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house on Fraternity Hill, sent three students to the hospital for treatment. The worst injury was a fractured orbital bone — a facial bone near the eye — that later required an operation, according to Delaney.

“[Pi Kappa Alpha] denied access [to members of] the football team,” causing a “physical altercation,” Delaney said a few days after the incident.

Several days after the incident, Assistant Athletics Director for Media Relations E. J. Borghetti said the athletics department was aware of the incident involving football players and was conducting its own investigation.

Borghetti urged that people not assume any individual acted as an aggressor until investigations are complete, adding that it wouldn’t be fair to speculate on any possible sanctions if charges are filed.

At press time, Borghetti said he had no additional statement to offer. He said that no members of the football team wish to come forward and speak about the allegations at this time.

Pi Kappa Alpha freshman Zack Schenkemeyer was working the door the night of the altercation, having been put in charge of security and risk management.

“There were three guys that said they were from the football team that wanted into the party,” Schenkemeyer said.

According to Schenkemeyer, the fraternity brothers inquired if the players were on the guest list, and when the football players replied that they weren’t, the brothers did not allow them into the party. The football players persisted, he said, and the fraternity brothers “kept up with our ‘no.'”

“He said he was going to get the whole football team and come back,” Schenkemeyer said of one of the students who identified himself as a football player.

A little later, the three football players allegedly returned to the Pi Kappa Alpha house. Schenkemeyer said that the brothers had not taken the initial threat seriously.

But when the brothers recognized the three students who had approached the door earlier, they realized that the students had come back with “more and more large guys.”

According to Schenkemeyer, the student who had originally talked to the brothers came into the fraternity house and, when he was again denied access to the party, flipped over the table that was used for the guest lists.

“As soon as he flipped the table, the rest of the football players from outside rushed in,” Schenkemeyer said.

Schenkemeyer said he then called for the assistance of several of the brothers. Eight Pi Kappa Alpha brothers, as well as nine to 12 of the students joining the three who identified themselves as football players, were involved in the fight, according to Schenkemeyer.

“Fists flew on both sides,” Schenkemeyer said. “We were trying to defend ourselves.”

When the situation escalated, Schenkemeyer said, he told a brother to call the police.

The Pitt police officers who arrived at the scene did not witness any of the assaults, and no arrests were made at that time, according to Delaney. No involved students’ identities have been released, but Delaney confirmed that more than 20 students were involved in the incident.

“This was a very excitable incident — on both sides,” Delaney said.

Delaney said that the Pitt police were not called until the fighting had moved from the doorway of the fraternity house to the outside. Pittsburgh police also responded to a call from the cell phone of a partygoer inside the house, Delaney said.

Delaney explained that those involved could face criminal charges and judicial board punishment for breaking the Student Code of Conduct.

“Not everybody there was fighting. Not everyone should be accused of fighting,” Delaney said at the start of the investigation. Several weeks later, he said that investigators were still trying to determine who acted aggressively, and who tried to break up the fight.

“People are being honest, from what we can tell,” Delaney said, explaining that students on both sides seemed willing to admit when they hadn’t been able to see or couldn’t recall details. Delaney added that the investigating officers still planned to interview three or four more witnesses, and that anyone else who witnessed the fight should contact the Pitt police immediately, at (412) 624-2121.

Student Government Board member and Pi Kappa Alpha brother Matt Hutchinson said the incident stemmed from his fraternity’s unwillingness to break University policy.

“What’s important to note here is that the reason this all started was that we were following University policy [by having] a guest list,” Hutchinson said.

He said that the fraternity had not received any additional contact from the University, but that he hoped that Associate Dean of Student Affairs Birney Harrigan, who is currently assuming the duties of Greek adviser, would get involved.

“I certainly hope Birney Harrigan will help us out on this,” he said. “That’s her role.”

Harrigan did not return a call from The Pitt News shortly after the incident, and she is now out of the country and will be unavailable for several weeks.

Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies and Dean of Students Jack Daniel, who said he would fill the role of acting Greek adviser in Harrigan’s absence, said he had not been contacted about the fight, and had no knowledge about it beyond what he had learned from reading newspaper reports. He said he did not know of any requests for assistance directed toward Harrigan.

“If there is a student with a concern, they should contact me directly,” Daniel said.

Schenkemeyer said that the fraternity could not even think about breaking social policy to let the football players into the party because it was so crowded, but he said he never thought that the players would return to the fraternity house.

“There’s still blood on the sidewalk outside the house,” Schenkemeyer said, a few days after the incident. “There’s a trail of blood up to the second floor bathroom, and blood all over the bathroom, too.”

Delaney could not speculate on how long the investigation would take because of its thorough nature, but he said that the investigation had been slowed down by finals week and the summer break, which made students more difficult to contact for interviews.

-J. Elizabeth Strohm contributed to this article.