New surveillance footage of a University of Missouri fraternity hazing incident that left a student permanently brain damaged shows him being handed a tube of beer to drink before he passes out unconscious on a couch.
Danny Santulli, 19, was forced to drink a bottle of Tito’s vodka and force-fed beer at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house during the “Pledge Dad Reveal Night” in October 2021, in video obtained by Good Morning America.
Mr Santulli is seen being led shirtless through the house by other fraternity brothers before the drinking episode begins.
He collapses backwards in one clip and is later placed on a sofa. He slides off the sofa unconscious, before other students pick him up and take him to hospital by car.
Mr Santulli is paralyzed and unable to see or speak eight months after the incident, and his parents are demanding two of the fraternity brothers face criminal prosecution.
“Just the fact that nobody... they knew he was in distress. His lips were blue and nobody called 911,” his mother Mary Pat Santulli told GMA.
“I mean, six-year-olds call 911.”
The family recently settled a lawsuit with 23 defendants involved in the hazing incident.
Their attorney David Bianchi filed an amended petition this week against two of the students involved, Samuel Ghandi and Alec Wetzler.
The amended lawsuit alleges Mr Wetzler put a tube into Mr Santulli’s mouth and poured beer into his throat.
Mr Ghandi failed to assist his fraternity brother when it was obvious he was dangerously intoxicated, the suit claims.
Mr Wetzler has also been charged with misdemeanour counts of supplying alcohol to a minor and possession of alcohol by a minor, the only person to be criminally charged over the incident.
Ms Santulli, who quit her banking job to care for her son full-time, said he would continue to need assistance for the rest of his life.
“He’s still not talking or walking, he’s in a wheelchair. He lost his vision. But he hears us and he knows we’re there. We’ll just keep fighting - we’re not going to give up hope,” she said.
His sister Meredith Santulli is furious about the lack of punishment for members of the fraternity.
“It makes me sick to my stomach seeing the people involved that harmed Danny walking around campus acting like they did nothing wrong,” she told GMA.
Family attorney Mr Bianchi told The Independent that universities are not doing enough to protect students.
“The universities cannot be babysitting these guys every night of the week, it’s impossible,” he said.
“But I think that the discipline that they have dispensed has not been strong enough because the students keep hazing anyway. I think the only solution at this point is to immediately expel everybody involved in a hazing event, and file criminal charges.”
Sixty-five students have died in college hazing incidents since 2000, including several in near-identical circumstances to Mr Santulli.
