Bronx, New York — May 2016

First, we would like to say that our hearts and sympathies go out to all the victims of the shooting incident at Van Cortlandt Park on Saturday May 28th, 2016.

There have been various reports linking our fraternity to this incident. After an internal investigation, we would like to clarify a few of the facts regarding this unfortunate event.

It is our understanding that:

– The shooting in question did not occur during our cookout, but rather at an adjacent cookout a few hours after our event had officially ended.
– No fraternity member was involved in triggering the altercation that led to the shooting.
– No fraternity member was injured at any point.
– One fraternity member on the scene was an off-duty Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and provided first-aid to the injured in the immediate aftermath until more help arrived.

Several news outlets have attributed the events of that evening to our organization. Based on multiple eye witness accounts, we believe this to be incorrect. We are, however, thankful the aforementioned brother was on the scene to provide aid in such a tragic situation. We celebrate his potentially life saving actions, and believe he represented our fraternity’s values in the best possible way.

As an organization that strives to advance the communities we represent, it is our duty to provide safe environments for our events. Therefore, we have informed all of our members to fully cooperate with the authorities during their investigation, and ask that anyone with information about what transpired to please step forward and contact the appropriate authorities.