Updated at 10:05 p.m. ET: Thirteen people were charged Wednesday in the death of Florida A&M university drum major Robert Champion, who died after being beaten during a hazing ritual in November.

State Attorney Lawson Lamar announced the charges at a news conference Wednesday, five months after Champion, 26, died aboard a chartered bus parked outside an Orlando hotel. He called the young man’s death an American tragedy.

Prosecutors say Champion was hazed to death by bandmates in November after the annual Florida Classic football game in Orlando. Florida’s A&M football team had lost.

"No one would have expected that his college experience would have included being pummeled to death," Lamar, the state attorney for Orange-Osceola County, said during the news conference. “I have come to believe that hazing is a term for bullying, bullying with a tradition.”

Lamar said 11 of the 13 people charged face felony charges. Most of the charges were third-degree felonies for "hazing with death," punishable under Florida law by a maximum of six years in jail, according to Lamar. Twenty others face misdemeanor charges, including some for others victims who were not seriously injured.

Lamar said he would not release names until all are in custody, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Authorities announced Wednesday evening that Caleb Jackson, 24, Rikki Wills, 24, were charged with felony hazing. Wills was a drum major last fall. Jackson has been booked 10 times before, for domestic battery, disorderly conduct and aggravated battery, according to inmate records.

The medical examiner ruled Champion’s death a homicide in the course of hazing by the university’s celebrated Marching 100 band. Detectives told The Associated Press that he suffered blunt trauma blows and died from shock caused by severe bleeding. Hazing that involves bodily harm is a third-degree felony in Florida.  

One of the hazing traditions, according to The New York Times, was to punch a band member walking down the aisle of the bus.

FAMU marching band members to face charges in drum major hazing death

In a six-minute 911 call obtained by the AP, an unidentified caller asked the dispatcher for an ambulance, saying that Champion had just vomited.

"His eyes are open, but he's not responding," the caller said. Another person took the phone and said, “He is cold.”  

Shortly after, the call was disconnected.

Four students were dismissed after the alleged hazing, but Champion’s parents were frustrated that no charges had been filed.

Witnesses have told Champion’s parents that he might have been targeted because he opposed the culture of hazing that they say has long existed in the band. It was also suggested to them that he was targeted because he was gay and a candidate for chief drum major.

But Champion's parents dismissed the notion that his sexual orientation triggered this incident.

"The main reason that we heard is because he was against hazing, and he was totally against it," Champion's father, Robert Champion Sr. told the AP.

His parents have sued the bus company.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The parents of a Florida A&M drum major killed in a hazing incident said they will sue the company that owns the bus where the hazing took place, The Orlando Sentinel reported on Tuesday.

Robert and Pam Champion said they plan to file the lawsuit against Fabulous Coach Lines to force witnesses to testify under oath about what happened to their son, Robert Champion Jr., 26, on board the chartered bus last November, according to their lawyer, Christopher Chestnut.

The lawyer told The Associated Press that the bus company’s negligence contributed to Champion's death. The lawyer and parents have said band members were able to get back on the bus to conduct hazing rituals after they had returned to an Orlando hotel following a football game against the school's archrival.

John Raoux / AP

Pam Champion and her husband, Robert Champion Sr., speak out about the death of their son Robert Jr., in Orlando, Fla.

Ray Land, the owner of Fabulous Coach Lines, said his staff did everything to get help once they were notified of a problem. Land told the AP in December that the bus driver was helping students unload their instruments when Champion collapsed.

"The bus company has some liability," Chestnut told the AP. "They knew or should have known that hazing was occurring on the bus."

'Not a hate crime'
Champion was killed in what the medical examiner has ruled a homicide in the course of hazing by the celebrated Florida A&M University "Marching 100" band. The beating took place while the bus was parked at an Orlando hotel after a band performance at a football game. No one has been charged yet in the death.

During a press conference in Orlando on Tuesday, the Champions confirmed their son was gay, but rejected rumors that his sexual orientation had made him a hazing target.

"Our investigation is very clear: This was hazing, not a hate crime," Chestnut said told The Orlando Sentinel.

Witnesses have told Champion's parents that their son may have been targeted for severe hazing because of his opposition to the marching band's culture of hazing, the AP said. Other witnesses have told them that other reasons might be that Champion was gay and that he was a candidate for chief drum major. His parents believe it was the first time he was hazed.

"The main reason that we heard is because he was against hazing, and he was totally against it," Robert Champion said.

The father said he knew nothing about the 50-year culture of hazing at the FAMU band when he sent his son off to school. Champion said that he regularly spoke by phone to his son, and that he always ended the calls by asking whether his son had anything he needed to tell his Dad.

"He never mentioned anything to me about hazing," Robert Champion said.

Hank Nuwer, an author of several books on hazing in schools and the military, said that hazing has reached the point where there has been a death in a fraternity, athletic team or band in a college every year from 1970 to 2011, “and sometimes more than that.”

Hazing on a bus among college students was rare, though a “huge” number of such incidents have occurred at the high school level, Nuwer said.

He said bus drivers needed to be alert and there should be adult supervision in the back of the bus: “If you have a culture of problems, you’re foolish not to have it,” he told msnbc.com on Tuesday. 

'A true leader'
Pam Champion said her son was defined not by his sexuality but by his leadership skills. 

"Robert was known for being a stickler [for rules]," she told the Sentinel. "If I thought about it, Robert was known for being what a true leader should be."

"Perhaps one of the motives might have been retaliatory," she said.

In the course of a private investigation, the family's lawyer said his office has spoken to more than 10 band members.

Chestnut said he determined that at the time of the incident, the bus was running but the interior lights were turned off.

"We don't know exactly who did what to Robert," Chestnut said, adding that detectives have not spoken to him or the family.

Pam Champion said the goal is to stop hazing to prevent further deaths and injuries, and she cautioned parents to be vigilant.

"The whole thing is, talk to your kids," she said. "Think twice when your kids are going off the college."

The family has previously said they plan to sue the university, but they must wait six months before filing under state law. 

This article contains reporting from The Associated Press, Reuters and msnbc.com's Miranda Leitsinger and Sevil Omer.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Three Florida A&M University marching band members, all men, appeared before a judge Tuesday to face hazing charges in the beating of a woman band mate police said was hit so hard with fists and a metal ruler that she broke her thigh and had blood clots in her legs.

The arrests marked the first details from authorities about the secret rituals this fall among the famed Marching 100 band. Police said Bria Shante Hunter, who played clarinet, was beaten about three weeks before drum major Robert Champion died during what was believed to be hazing on a band bus.

Investigators have not said exactly what happened to Champion, who was also a clarinet player, and like Hunter, from Georgia. Champion's death set off several investigations of the marching band and school administrators who appear to have long known about the hazing tradition.

AP

James Harris

Hunter, in an interview with Orlando station WFTV-TV, was asked why band members take part in hazing.

"So we can be accepted," she said. "If you don't do anything, then, it's like you're lame."

Tallahassee police said the three men arrested were involved in hazing Hunter at an off-campus apartment because she tried to get out of a meeting and couldn't recite information about their clique of Georgia natives, known as the "Red Dawg Order."

AP

Sean Hobson

Authorities said James Harris, 22, helped plan the hazing at his apartment and at one point, he stopped the other two men from hitting Hunter further. He has been charged with hazing and his bond was set at $2,500.

Harris' attorney, Eric Abrahamsen, insisted there was no evidence his client took part in the hazing and that he would fight the charges.

AP

Aaron Golson

Sean Hobson, 23, and 19-year-old Aaron Golson, were charged with hazing and battery, and their bail was set at $10,000. An attorney for Golson said he would also plead not guilty. Golson was released from jail and ducked into a car driven by his mother. He refused to answer any questions.

• Background story: Police charge 3 in Florida A&M band with hazing

Hobson did not yet have an attorney.

Authorities said Hunter was targeted Oct. 31 by other members of the "Red Dawg Order" because she tried to get out of going to a group meeting. She was repeatedly punched on the tops of her thighs by Golson and Hobson, witnesses told police.

The following day, police said, Hunter was beaten with a metal ruler when she could not recite information about the "Red Dawg Order" properly.

Police said Hobson sent Hunter a text message Nov. 5 to say he was sorry.

"I apologize for the hurt I put you through. I apologize for the mental and physical strain you have endured," Hobson said in the message, according to police.

When authorities interviewed him, Hobson acknowledged he was a member of the "Red Dawg Order" but denied harming Hunter or sending her a text message.

Code of silence
Attorney Craig Brown, who is representing Golson, told the judge he was a good student and should be released without bond because he was cooperating with police. Leon County Judge Ronald Flurry, however, required Golson to post a bond. The judge said if the charges were true, they were "egregious."

After the hearing, Brown said there was a "difference in the stories" of what actually took place.

Ricky Jones, director of the Center on Race and Inequality at the University of Louisville and an expert on hazing, said he had not heard of a case where a female had been beaten by males.

"This doesn't mean it's a first," he said. Since the band and its various groups admit men and women, mixed gender hazing might not be uncommon, Jones said.

Champion's death exposed a hazing tradition that has long haunted the university. Former clarinet player Ivery Luckey was hospitalized after he said he was paddled around 300 times in 1998. Luckey told Tallahassee police that it was mostly girls who hit him in an initiation to become part of "The Clones."

Three years later, band member Marcus Parker suffered kidney damage because of a paddle beating.

After Champion died, the university indefinitely suspended performances by the famed Marching 100. School president James Ammons has vowed to break what he calls a "code of silence" on the hazing rituals.

Last week, the board of trustees reprimanded Ammons over his job performance, including how the university has dealt with hazing. The panel that oversees the state university system has also called for a probe into whether school officials ignored past warnings about hazing.

"The board of trustees and president Ammons hope that through these arrests all involved in perpetuating this culture will really begin to view hazing as a serious matter," said university spokeswoman Sharon Saunders.

The school fired band director Julian White, who contends he tried to report problems with hazing to his superiors. He was reinstated and placed on administrative leave because the Florida Department of Law Enforcement asked the university to halt all disciplinary actions until the investigation is finished. Four students connected to Champion's death were expelled, but then also reinstated.

Saunders said she had no knowledge of any other specific hazing cases currently under investigation. 

 The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.

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