College Student's Bizarre Death Linked To Frat Hazing

Authorities are investigating a hazing ritual as the cause of a Buffalo State College student's unexplained illness that led to his death.

Bradley Doyley, 21, was set to graduate at the New York college with a business major this spring, WGRZ reports. He was admitted to Buffalo General Hospital on Jan. 29 and died there Thursday.

Police are investigating allegations that Doyley was hazed at an off-campus location of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, where he may been pledging. That chapter is now suspended, according to reports.

Grieving friends and family painted a gruesome picture of Doyley's ongoing illness after he was allegedly forced to drink an unidentified toxic cocktail.

“He was throwing up blood,” family friend Michael Panton told the New York Daily News on behalf of Doyley’s mother. “They had to take him into surgery and cut open his stomach. She asked us to keep him in our prayers.”

Doyley played for the college's Bengals men's basketball team, and was known as a man who had his path set.

“His parents are devastated, his sister is broken, his brother is hurt,” his cousin, Marsha Green, told the Daily News. “He was their baby, he had such a bright future. No one was expecting this.”

Buffalo State President Katherine Conway-Turner released a statement after Doyley's death, eulogizing the "valued" student and acknowledging the investigation:

Buffalo State College is aware of and continues to support the City of Buffalo Police Department’s investigation into an allegation of hazing involving Alpha Phi Alpha and Bradley Doyley at an off-campus location. While the investigation is conducted, the campus chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha has been suspended by both the college and the fraternity’s national governing body.

All recognized Greek letter organizations and their members are required by the college to abide by the student code of conduct, the campus Greek recognition and governance policies, and New York State anti-hazing laws. In addition to possible criminal prosecution, failure to abide by these rules can result in suspension or expulsion from Buffalo State.

Police wouldn't comment further pending the results of an autopsy.

Alpha Phi Alpha has had a history with hazing investigations. In 2012, the University of Florida temporarily suspended its fraternity after a "serious hazing incident," and in 2014, an Alpha pledge sued, claiming that he was hazed while attempting to join the chapter at Bowie State University, the Daily News reports.

According to its website, Alpha Phi Alpha is a historically black fraternity founded at Cornell University in 1906, and has a firm policy against hazing.

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