Five members of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity at the University of Mississippi were arrested for allegedly savagely beating another frat’s member. Four of the five wore smiles on their faces in mug shots taken by police.
At roughly 4 a.m. on October 6, Jeremy Boyle, a member of Sigma Pi, was studying in the dining room of his frat house when he saw somebody lurking in the backyard. When he went outside, he was allegedly confronted by the five Pi Kappa Alpha students, one of whom was masked while the others wore “pledge attire.”
According to a police report, Tucker Steil beat Boyle with “hands, fists, and feet.” The Daily Mississippian reported that Boyle was left with a concussion, broken teeth, a ruptured ear drum, and a bruised lung, ribs, and groin.
Steil was charged by police with felony assault; he could spend 60 years in jail. His fellow frat member James Basile was charged with simple assault, larceny, and hazing, which could prompt the university to expel him. The three other fraternity members, Christian Guy, Kyle Hughes, and Austin Rice, were charged with larceny.
According to WMC-TV, a family member of one of the arrested students’ claimed the Pi Kappa Alpha members were attempting to steal Sigma Pi’s donkey as a prank. But Boyle’s grandfather didn’t think one whit of the incident was amusing, saying, “They descended upon him and beat him unmercifully – beat him within an inch of his life.”
Neither fraternity has offered comment about the incident; the university has not announced any prospective punishment.