Queens Father Believes Hazing Led To Son's Suicide
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A fraternity at Penn State Altoona has been suspended after a freshman from Queens committed suicide.
Marquise Braham, 18, of Rosedale jumped to his death from the Marriott Inn in Uniondale while home on spring break last Friday.
His father, Richard Braham, told 1010 WINS' Mona Rivera he found photos and text messages on his son's phone of apparent torture and hazing at Phi Sigma Kappa.
One picture shows "what appears to be a pledge -- the child is blindfolded and there is another child holding a gun to their head and my son took that picture on his iPhone," Braham said.
He believes guilt over the apparent violent hazing rituals drove his son to kill himself.
"I think that was just too much for him as a kid who had been raised in a Catholic and Christian upbringing his entire life," Braham said. "That was just something he couldn't do."
"There was incredible amounts of drinking and other things that went on in that fraternity, drugs, one thing where apparently you had to eat shaving cream mixed with marijuana," he added.
In the wake of his son's suicide, Penn State Altoona has suspended the chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa and an investigation is underway.
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