Delaware State University to probe alleged hazing after 4 students injured in violent crash

DOVER, Del. (FOX 29) - Officials at Delaware State University are investigating alleged hazing after a crash that seriously injured four students.

University officials said Tuesday that the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity is prohibited from conducting gatherings, programs or recruitment activities at the school during the investigation.

The national director of the fraternity didn't immediately return a telephone message left at the group's headquarters in Philadelphia.

The family of 23-year-old Marlon Jackson says the senior at Delaware State University is being kept alive by a breathing device after the violent collision.

"He's physically on a ventilator. He doesn't have any response. They're telling us he's brain dead," his stepmother Courtney Jackson said.

Delaware State Police say Jackson was driving a Chevy Impala with three passengers when the vehicle crossed the median, spun into the northbound lanes and was hit by a pickup truck.

His mother says he fell asleep at the wheel because the fraternity he's pledging was keeping him up. She says she begged him to get some sleep just hours before the crash.

Jackson, who previously served time in the Air Force, was pledging the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, according to his family. His family says he was being sent on trips, known as missions at all hours by fraternity members, and his girlfriend claims he was being hazed.

"He would get hit with paddles, canes. They would give him body shots, make him eat raw onions. I had to scrub hot candle wax off his back," said Jackson's girlfriend Kyarie Burt.

The car's front passenger was also critically injured. The two rear passengers were hospitalized in stable condition after the crash.

No further details have been released at this time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.