Police-worn body camera footage has been released from a hazing incident at the University of Iowa’s Alpha Delta Phi fraternity in 2024.
Iowa City police and fire departments and the University of Iowa police responded to a fire alarm at the fraternity house on Nov. 15, 2024, where they discovered 56 blindfolded pledges, with food thrown on them. The university investigated the incident and ultimately suspended the fraternity for four years until 2029.
Here’s what we know about the footage and the hazing case:
What does the body camera footage show?
In edited footage posted to YouTube by The CrimePiece, which has 340,000 views, police and firefighters are seen responding to the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity house. In the basement, they find a room full of young men, blindfolded. Some are shirtless. Many appear to be covered in white, yellow, red, or brown substances.
Iowa City and UI police repeatedly urged two men in the video to contact the house dad or anyone “in charge.” One man, dressed in a white hoodie, stands in the doorway of the room, holding a beer. He identifies himself as “Jose,” then provides an ID to officers, saying, “I think it’s fake.”
Officers repeatedly ask the shirtless men to leave the room, but they do not move. At one point, an officer asks if anyone is hurt. No one responds.
Officers order two of the shirtless men out of the room for questioning. Another officer asks the room of shirtless men, “Does anyone want to be forthcoming on what’s going on? Anyone? Because you’ve got to see it from my perspective of, ‘What the f— did I just walk into?'” The room stays silent for a few seconds before “Jose” returns and says the fraternity is holding “a celebration of life.”
Outside, an officer tells an apparent fraternity member that, with prominent hazing deaths around the country, “The university has a very, very strict policy on hazing.” The frat member, who identifies himself as the fraternity president, admits the pledges were taking part in “a ritual prior to initiation.”
Was anyone arrested after the incident?
In the edited body camera footage, officers visit 22-year-old Joseph Gaya the next day, who identified himself as “Jose” the night before. Officers place him under arrest for interference with official acts. Gaya was not a University of Iowa student when the incident occurred, a spokesperson previously confirmed to the Press-Citizen.
Gaya was the lone person charged in connection with the hazing incident, though his charges were dropped after the state verbally motioned to dismiss the case in November 2025.
What did the University of Iowa’s investigation find?
The University of Iowa found that the fraternity had violated its policies on hazing and misconduct on organizational property, and members had failed to comply with the investigation.
The national fraternity called the UI’s investigation “unjust,” saying the school created a “one-strike” policy exclusively for Alpha Delta Phi in 2023.
National fraternity office investigation points guilt at two UI members
The national Alpha Delta Phi office concluded, through the results of their own investigation, that two fraternity members bear “sole responsibility,” according to the fraternity’s appeal with the University of Iowa Office of Student Accountability
The national office said the members admitted to organizing the hazing and pushed forward without the consent of “chapter leadership.” Their memberships were revoked.
“Through personal statements of admission, the final report states that these two individuals came up with the event, carried it out, and acted outside the directives of chapter leadership and the official plan for our initiation events,” Alpha Delta Phi wrote in the chapter’s appeal. “Their actions are both disappointing and harmful to the chapter.“
The fraternity members’ names were redacted in several documents obtained and reviewed by the Press-Citizen.
Alpha Delta Phi fraternity appears to be in operation despite suspension
The Alpha Delta Phi Instagram (@alphadeltsiowa) appears to show fraternity activities continuing as normal. In a video from August 2025, two members take viewers through the house at 703 N. Dubuque Street, including the basement. The area seen in the body cam footage packed with shirtless young men in the body camera footage is identified as a “storage room.”
The most recent Instagram post, shared on Jan. 13, details several “spring rush” events at the fraternity in February, including a “Zoom orientation,” a house tour, and “Preference Day” on Feb. 8. The post also lists three men as “recruitment chairs,” along with their phone numbers. A picture of the fraternity’s 2026 executive board was posted on Dec. 11.
The UI lists the fraternity’s current suspension online, noting the earliest reinstatement date as July 1, 2029.
A UI spokesperson on Wednesday, Feb. 18, said that the university “does not provide any support to the (Alpha Delta Phi) organization” because the fraternity is currently “suspended and unrecognized.”
(This story was updated to add new information.)
Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at [email protected] or on X @ryanhansen01.
