Concrete, lines and signs makeup a parking lot. People often look for adequate lighting, and a clean appearance when leaving their vehicle and entering a facility.
The walk through a parking lot can be arguably life changing. It could be a time to reflect on just happened, or where you are going.
A November night, FAMU’s charter buses pulled in to the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando, many of the Marching 100 students were probably celebrating the band’s performance at half-time.
The musicians left the buses and unloaded their instruments. The orange and green uniforms and shiny instruments were hauled off and into their designated rooms.
Students would return to one bus, with a different type of excitement.
“The autopsy revealed extensive contusions of his chest, arms, shoulder, and back with extensive hemorrhage,” Florida’s district nine medical examiner’s press release said.
In a statement given Wednesday, Florida’s state attorney’s office filed charges against 13 individuals. All have been charged with hazing (a first degree misdemeanor.)
“It is our opinion that the death of Robert Champion, a 26-year-old male, is the result of hemorrhagic shock due to soft tissue hemorrhage, incurred by blunt force trauma sustained during a hazing incident,” the statement ended.
11 of those students are also charged with hazing resulting in death (a third degree felony) which carries a maximum of six years in prison.
So far, eight men have turned themselves into police departments across the state of Florida. Three are out of state.
Rikki Wills and Caleb Jackson were the first arrested on Wednesday, at Leon County Jail. They were both charged additionally with hazing causing an injury or death.
Jackson was also in violation of probation, but Wills, a drum major like Champion, bonded out.
On Thursday, Benjamin McNamee and Jessie Baskin turned themselves in to Miami-Dade County Jail, where they later posted bail. Their Orange County warrants said “college hazing causing injury or death.”
Harold Finley was arrested at Palm Beach County Jail, charged with felony hazing causing injury or death. Finley is still in custody.
College hazing causing injury or death was written on Bryan Jones’ warrant, and he too turned himself in Thursday- to the Hillsborough County’s jail. He bonded out.
Aaron Golson and drum major Shawn Turner had a $15,000 bond on each of them. Both turned themselves in to the Gadsden County Jail yesterday.
Turner has bailed himself out.
(RECENT: Ryan Dean, 21, and Jonathan Boyce, 24, surrendered to police today, Friday, at the Leon County Jail.)
Of the 13 young men who are accused of being a part of Champion’s death, 11 will be facing six years in prison if convicted.
The three out-of-state students said that they will surrender themselves. They have promised to make the walk from their vehicles to the front of door of a police station.
With charges for participation in a dangerous ritual-a ritual on a bus, parked safely in a parking lot.