Bodycam Footage Shows Moment Iowa City Cops Found Hazing Incident With 56 Blindfolded Pledges

Some weird and slightly disturbing bodycam footage is circulating the internet this morning after a YouTube channel got ahold of a hazing incident that occured at a University of Iowa fraternity house in 2024.

The footage has received millions of views since it was uploaded Tuesday afternoon. It shows police and fire fighters responding to a fire alarm at the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity in November of 2024.

When the officer followed the firefighters to the basement of the house, using flashlights, they walked into a dark room that contained 56 shirtless and blindfolded pledges, with food splattered on them.

“Looks like we have quite a bit of hazing," the officer tells one of the students who didn't appear to be participating, at least as a pledge.

“I’ve already given multiple commands to clear the room and get out of here, but no one’s moving,” as the 56 pledges stood motionless, and silent.

The officers asked over and over to speak with who was "in charge" or the house dad, but nobody seemed to want to speak with him, or give him information other than "He's working at Summit," one of the local sports bars.

One man who was dressed in a hoodie and standing in the basement with the officer while drinking a beer handed him an ID after multiple requests, told him his name was "Jose," and then told him he's pretty sure the ID he gave him was fake.

He was later identifed as 21-year-old Joseph Gaya.

“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?'”

Gaya told the officer they were holding a “celebration of life.”

As the officer worked to determine if anyone was injured, Gaya wiped a red splatter off one of the pledge's neck, and the officer asked him if it was blood.

Gaya responded "I don't know, taste it."

The fraternity president was eventually found and interviewed, who told the officer the pledges were completing the “lead up to initiation.”

Gaya was arrested and charged the next day with interference of official acts.

A spokesperson for the University of Iowa previously told the Iowa City Press Citizen that he was not a University of Iowa student at the time of the incident.

The charges were eventually dropped by the state.

The University reveiwed the incident and suspended the fraternity for four years - until 2029.