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Police bodycam video exposes disturbing fraternity hazing offering a chilling look at acts inside house
In November 2024, a hazing event at the University of Iowa's Alpha Delta Phi fraternity was uncovered when police responded to a fire alarm. Newly released bodycam footage, published on The CrimePiece YouTube channel, shows officers discovering a disturbing scene in the fraternity house's basement.
The footage captures the moment officers found 56 blindfolded individuals, many of whom were shirtless and covered in unidentified substances.
A disturbing scene inside the fraternity house
The officers were taken aback by what they discovered. The men appeared disoriented, standing close together in the basement, with some covered in various white, brown, and yellow substances.
The police bodycam footage shows one officer clearly shocked, saying, "Does anyone want to be forthcoming about what’s going on? Anyone? Because you gotta see it from my perspective of, what the f**k did I just walk into?"
As the situation unfolded, the officers attempted to get more information from the group, but their efforts were met with little response.
A long exchange between police officers and the fraternity members followed. One officer told the group, "This stops here, guys," and continued, "This is the police department. This stops here. Who is in charge?" The officer then ordered, "How about we start cleaning this up? Everyone take their blindfolds off."
Despite repeated instructions to vacate the room, the men resisted and did not move. The officer remarked, "I’ve already given multiple commands to clear the room and get out of here, but no one's moving. Clearly, they’re taking this pretty serious."
Fraternity suspension and legal actions
After the police intervention, the officers spoke to the individual responsible for the fraternity event outside the building. "We responded to a fire alarm, we were trying to get people to evacuate because of the fire alarm, but from my understanding, you guys refused," one officer could be heard saying.
"Then, on top of that, we find this hazing event, we want to speak to somebody. Nobody knows anything, nobody knows anyone. Nobody knows what’s going on. This is going in a report. The University of Iowa is going to see this."
The Alpha Delta Phi fraternity was suspended in May 2025 for four academic years. Joseph Gaya, who was not a student at the University of Iowa, was the only individual arrested.
He faced charges for interference with official acts, though those charges were later dropped. Hazing is strictly prohibited at the University of Iowa and is illegal under Iowa law, making the incident a serious violation of university and state policies.