Michigan State University has suspended an Asian American fraternity after the death of a student at an off-campus frat house, ABC News reports.
Ingram County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the student as 21-year-old Phat Nguyen.
Police responded to an emergency medical call around 2 a.m. on Saturday. When they arrived at an off-campus Pi Alpha Phi fraternity house, they found Nguyen and three other individuals passed out inside, ABC News reports. Nguyen was unresponsive and not breathing.
Police attempted to resuscitate Nguyen, but he was eventually pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the fraternity’s Facebook page, Pi Alpha Phi is an Asian American interest fraternity. The fraternity’s most recent post on November 19 welcomed its newest pledges, including Nguyen.
The post was put on Facebook a morning before Nguyen passed away.
On Monday night, more than 100 people outside Michigan State’s Eli Broad College of Business for a candlelight vigil, Lansing State Journal reports.
Friends at the vigil said that Nguyen was an active member of the MSU community.
“As a community, VSA came together to have fun, to connect with each other, and to grow without any fear of judgment. Phat was the embodiment of what our organization stands for and what we still hold true,” Alisha Phan, president of the MSU Vietnamese Student Association, told Lansing State Journal.
They also described Nguyen as kind and welcoming.
“Every time I talked to him, he would always just be the nicest guy ever,” Evan Chang, who met Nguyen at tennis club tryouts, told Lansing State Journal. “He would always be complimenting me whenever I talked to him … things that I would never think of.”
Police are waiting for the results of toxicology tests run during an autopsy before they can determine Nguyen’s cause of death, ABC News reports. They believe alcohol may have played a role.
“The preliminary investigation indicates that the deceased is an MSU student and that alcohol consumption could play a factor in this case,” the police statement reads.
Pi Alpha Phi’s national board confirmed in an email that its Michigan State chapter had been suspended pending an investigation, ABC News reports. It is barred from recruiting new members and hosting on-campus events.
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