Fight alleged outside fraternity house

Kappa Sigma fraternity denied causing the incident.

By Juana Summers

Published May 1, 2007

An MU fraternity celebrated its alumni weekend last week, but a non-member present early on April 22 said the fraternity's night ended in physical altercations, racially offensive language and police involvement. The fraternity's president said the problems began when uninvited non-members showed up during a "small get-together." The MU Office of Greek Life is investigating the incident.

MU freshman Gbola Oseni said he witnessed events at the Kappa Sigma fraternity house that he considered to be racially offensive and said he had encountered similar behavior there in the past.

"It's not the first time this has happened," Oseni said. "The racial connotations started from one guy."

Oseni said the individual was involved in a physical altercation outside the fraternity house and then returned to the house and began to kick individuals out.

Kappa Sigma President Chad Brueckner said the alumni weekend events were "basically for brothers and alumni," but in a later interview, Brueckner said there had been a get-together that included non fraternity members.

"From talking to my brothers, they told me that it was not a party after the alumni event, but my brothers and some of their really close friends at the house," he said.

Brueckner said around 3 a.m., members of the fraternity realized there were strangers in their house and attempted to kick them out around 3:15 a.m.

"My understanding was that the leader of this group of guys jumped one of my guys," Brueckner said. "That's what my members are telling me."

Oseni said the man involved used racial slurs and profanity and asked Oseni and other black students present at the fraternity house to leave.

A second fight occurred, Oseni said, when one of his friends attempted to calm the individual down, and the individual punched him.

"When we finally got away, we were running outside," Oseni said. "We were about to walk away, but we saw my white friend standing up there talking to one of the guys. Then we saw them punch him in the face."

Oseni said after the punch was thrown, he and other individuals who were not members of Kappa Sigma tried to disperse the fight. He said more people joined in the fight after it began.

"At first, they all turned around and started chasing me," Oseni said. "I was running away from them just to get away, they were yelling the n-word and telling me to get away."

Oseni said six or seven individuals chased him until police arrived.

At that point, he said all but one individual dispersed, and the police confronted him and that individual.

"The police officers asked us for our story, and I explained that I was just trying to defend my friends," he said.

Police arrived at the fraternity at 3 a.m., Columbia police Capt. Stephen Monticelli said. He said police responded to a call from MU police, who were making a traffic stop in the area.

"There was evidence of a large party," Monticelli said. "We observed many open containers of alcohol on the ground."

Monticelli said officers also saw between 10 and 15 people "milling around" in the area.

Officers spoke to Brueckner, who said he had been sleeping since 8 p.m. Saturday, Monticelli said.

"He said that he was aware of a party, and that it was supposed to be non-alcoholic," Monticelli said.

Monticelli said no arrests were made, but the department advised the Greek council and referred the incident to the community action team because of nuisance violations.

"The only containers that I know of that the police took pictures of were on our back porch where our third-party vendor was," Brueckner said. "I can't comment whether those containers were from an alleged party afterwards or from the vendor. That trash could easily come from the third-party vendor."

Monticelli said the police report from Saturday night did not indicate any racially motivated slurs or other violent language.

The incident at the fraternity is under investigation, Greek Life Assistant Director Janna Basler said.

Basler could not comment about the specific incident because it is under investigation, but she said the Office of Greek Life holds a dual responsibility to its chapters and to students.

"One is that we have the responsibility to make sure that our chapters are upholding the values of the Greek community," Basler said. "But they are first and foremost university students."

Basler said the office would look at the situation in order to gather as many facts as possible and use any similar past cases in order to determine a plan of action, if necessary.

Part of the process in reviewing an incident similar to this one requires determining whether the incident was chapter or individual related, Basler said.

"We have to see if it was something done in the context of the chapter," Basler said.

In defining similar events, Basler said a chapter event does not have a strict definition and would not necessarily have to be an event that was advertised through fliers and other similar advertising.

If an individual was judged to be at fault in an incident, the individual would be referred to the Office of Judicial Services, Basler said.

"We definitely want to follow up on it, not just turn a blind head to it," she said.