An officer reviewing charges against eight soldiers in connection with the death of a Chinese-American Army private, who apparently took his life after being hazed and abused, has recommended dropping the most serious charge -- involuntary manslaughter.

The investigating officer recommended that seven soldiers be court-martialed on multiple charges in connection with the death of Pvt. Danny Chen, 19, who died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound on Oct. 3 in Afghanistan, the Army said Tuesday. The Article 32 hearings, which determine if there is enough evidence for a court-martial, are being held at Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan.

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The most recent four infantrymen to go through those hearings had been facing charges that included involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide, thought to be the first time such charges have been brought in this type of case, according to experts on hazing and on the military legal system.

But involuntary manslaughter was not among the charges recommended against Staff Sgt. Andrew VanBockel, Sgts. Jeffrey Hurst and Adam Holcomb and Spc. Thomas Curtis -- mirroring the outcome of the first Article 32 hearing for Spc. Ryan Offutt, which ended on Jan. 22.

"If the investigating officer determines that there was not sufficient evidence to support the elements of the charge, then the investigating officer may recommend not moving forward with that charge," said Sgt. 1^st Class Alan G. Davis, an Army spokesman. 

The maximum punishment for involuntary manslaughter is 10 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge; for negligent homicide it three years imprisonment and a dishonorable discharge.

The commander of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, will consider the investigating officer's recommendations in determining whether to forward the charges to the Combined Joint Task Force-82 Commander for final disposition, Davis said.

A lawyer and former member of the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps has previously noted that the officer's recommendations were simply that -- a recommendation -- that could be accepted or ignored.

Chen was found dead at a guard tower with his rifle lying next to him at Combat Outpost Palace in the Panjwa'i district of Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan.

Almost immediately after he arrived in mid-August, Chen, the only Chinese-American in his platoon, was required to do exercises that crossed over to alleged abuse, according to investigators from the Regional Command-South, said Elizabeth OuYang, New York branch president of OCA, a national civil rights organization serving Asian Pacific Americans.

Some of it was inflicted by one soldier and some by a group, according to OuYang, who was briefed on the investigation. Investigators also found evidence that the platoon sergeant and the platoon leader -- the top two officers in the unit -- were aware of an attack on Chen on Sept. 27 and chose not to report it, OuYang said.

The family and Chinese-American community have asked that Chen's comrades face the involuntary manslaughter charges and want the courts-martial to be held in the United States, citing the need for access, transparency and accountability. OuYang said they were disappointed with the officer not recommending the involuntary manslaughter charge.

"We have not been able to see any of the evidence in these eight pre-trials," she said. "We don’t know why we’re in the dark ... as to why the involuntary manslaughter charges was dropped. That’s why it’s imperative that we must have access to the court-martials so we can see the evidence in this case.”

The investigating officer has recommended the following charges be forwarded to court-martial:

-- For VanBockel: two counts of violation of a general regulation; three counts of dereliction of duty; two counts of maltreatment; one count of negligent homicide; and one count of reckless endangerment.

-- For Hurst: two counts violation of a general regulation; two counts of dereliction of duty; one count of maltreatment; one count of negligent homicide; and one count of reckless endangerment.

-- For Holcomb: three counts of violation of a general regulation; two counts of dereliction of duty; two counts of maltreatment; one count of assault; one count of negligent homicide; one count of reckless endangerment; and one count of communicating a threat.

-- For Curtis: two counts of violation of a general regulation; one count of dereliction of duty; six counts of maltreatment; four counts of assault; one count of negligent homicide; and one count of reckless endangerment.

-- For Lt. Daniel Schwartz, 25, of Maryland: eight counts of dereliction of duty.

-- For Offutt: two counts of violation of a lawful general regulation; four counts of maltreatment; one count of manslaughter; three counts of assault consummated by battery; one count of negligent homicide; and one count of reckless endangerment.

The investigating officer has yet to issue a court-martial recommendation for Sgt. Travis Carden, 25, of Fowler, Ind. His hearing is scheduled for April 4-5 at Kandahar Air Field, the Army said. The charges against him are: two counts of violation of a lawful general regulation;  two counts of maltreatment; one count of assault; and one count of reckless endangerment.

The Article 32 for the remaining soldier, Staff Sgt. Blaine Dugas, 35, of Texas, began Feb. 19 and is ongoing. He is charged with one count of violation of a lawful general order; two counts of dereliction of duty; and one count of mking a false official statement.

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The first soldier to face legal proceedings in the death of a Chinese-American GI believed to have committed suicide in Afghanistan after allegedly being hazed by his fellow troops may not face the toughest charge the Army had sought of involuntary manslaughter.

The Article 32 hearing for Spc. Ryan Offutt, a 32-year old infantryman from Greenville, Penn., into the death of Pvt. Danny Chen, finished Sunday, Sgt. 1^st Class Alan G. Davis, an Army spokesman, said in an email.

The investigating officer recommended forwarding all charges to court-martial, except for the manslaughter charge, Davis said, later noting that the charge was not dropped but the officer "recommended not moving forward" on it "because he believed that insufficient evidence was presented at the hearing to justify" proceeding with it.

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Eight soldiers, including Offutt, have been charged in connection with the death of Chen, 19, who died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound on Oct. 3. Five of them were charged with involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide, thought to be the first time such charges have been brought in this type of case, according to experts on hazing and on the military legal system.

The Article 32 hearings, which will determine whether there was enough evidence for a court-martial against the men, will run through about Feb. 20 at Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan. The charges against Offutt that the investigating officer recommended be forwarded to court-martial include maltreatment, assault consummated by battery, reckless endangerment and negligent homicide.

The maximum punishment for involuntary manslaughter is 10 years and a dishonorable discharge, while negligent homicide is a dishonorable discharge and three years.

Grover Baxley, a former member of the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps, noted that the investigating officer's recommendation was "just that - a recommendation."

"The Convening Authority can follow or ignore that advice, in whole or in part, as he or she decides. As a result, you may still see the government refer all the charges, including the manslaughter charge, to a court-martial," Baxley wrote in an e-mail. "Alternatively, even though the Investigating Officer recommended going forward on the majority of the charges, the Convening Authority could still drop all the charges at this point, though I don't think that's likely."

Asian-American advocates and the family told Army officials during a meeting in early January that they did not want the proceedings to take place overseas, citing the need for transparency and access, and have said the toughest charges should not be dropped.

“While the negligent homicide charge is recommended, we are extremely disappointed that the manslaughter charge is not," Elizabeth OuYang, New York branch president of OCA, a national civil rights organization serving Asian Pacific Americans, said in a statement. "The family and the community are not able to see what is happening in these hearings taking place in Afghanistan - the Army has the ability to and should televise these hearings."

The commander of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division will consider the recommendations of the investigating officer in determining whether to forward the charges against Offutt to the Army's Regional Command-South commander for final disposition, Davis said.

Chen was found dead at a guard tower with his rifle lying next to him at Combat Outpost Palace in the Panjwa'i district of Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan.

According to investigators from the Regional Command-South, OuYang said, almost immediately after he arrived in mid-August, Chen, the only Chinese-American in his platoon, was required to do exercises that within a few days crossed over to alleged abuse. Some of it was inflicted by one soldier and some by a group of them, the investigators said.

Investigators found evidence that the platoon sergeant and the platoon leader -- the platoon's top two leaders -- were aware of an attack on Chen on Sept. 27 and chose not to report it, OuYang said.

The Army's Criminal Investigation Command said Monday that its investigation into Chen's death was not complete.

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The family of a Chinese-American soldier believed to have committed suicide in Afghanistan after allegedly being hazed by his fellow soldiers has received "very sensitive" new information on the investigation from the Army, according to a family friend.

Army officials briefed the parents of Danny Chen for several hours on Wednesday at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn about the death of their 19-year-old son, said Frank Gee, an Army veteran and vice commander of the American Legion's New York branch who also attended.

"Basically they informed the family of what ... happened," said Gee, 72, who was called into the case to help translate for the Chen family.  "... There is something new, but we are not authorized to divulge anything. It's very sensitive material because the prosecution is going on, the case is going on, and they don't want to jeopardize it."

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Chen was found dead at a guard post on Oct. 3 at the remote Combat Outpost Palace in the Panjwa'i district of Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan. The Army announced in late December that it had charged eight of his fellow soldiers in his death.

Elizabeth Ouyang, New York branch president of OCA, a national civil rights organization serving Asian Pacific Americans, also attended the meeting but declined to comment on what was said. The Chen family held a press conference Thursday afternoon to discuss some details of the briefing.

Chen's mother, Su Zhen, and father, Yan Tao, both 49, were briefed by representatives from the Criminal Investigation Command (CID), the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's office and Regional Command-South, among others.

"The Army informed Private Chen's family of the administrative investigation's findings pertaining to the cause and manner of Private Chen's death, and the current status of court-martial proceedings arising out of the administrative and ongoing criminal investigations," an Army spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Amy Hannah, said Wednesday in a statement.

The charged soldiers have been assigned to a different forward operating base in Afghanistan, removed from active duty and placed under increased supervision of senior non-commissioned officers, Sgt. 1^st Class Alan G. Davis, an Army spokesman, said in an email.

There were no other known suicides at Combat Outpost Palace, where Chen was stationed, prior to his death and the regional command has no other cases of charges relating to suicides. The outpost came under 16 attacks, but no soldiers died as a result, Davis said.

Five of the eight soldiers were charged with involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide, apparently the first time such charges have been brought in this type of case, military legal and hazing experts said. "The charges relate to conduct that occurred in the time leading up to his death," Davis wrote.

The CID said Tuesday that it investigated all deaths as if they were homicides and their query into Chen's death was not complete. CID agents on the ground were deployed within minutes of his death to begin the investigation, which generally includes interviews, toxicology reports and autopsies, said Chris Grey, chief of public affairs at USA Criminal Investigation Division.

“I know they (the Army spokesmen in Afghanistan) used the words 'apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound,' but our case is still ongoing," Grey said. "Seeing the nature of what’s going on with the soldiers being charged, etc., it did cause a little bit of confusion, but I can guarantee that our investigation is ongoing."

Abuse at base in Afghanistan
The death of their only child has taken a toll on the Chens, immigrants from Taishan in southern China.

A portrait of their son in uniform stood on a foldout table in their living room last week. Incense burned in front of the makeshift shrine illuminated by candles and his favorite foods had been placed on a paper plate: a chocolate chip cookie, a bag of Skittles, some Doritos and a Cup of Noodles with a fork placed in the soggy ramen. Alongside lay his military medals and the American flag that was draped over his casket.

His mother said that when she leaves the apartment in a towering lower Manhattan housing project, she stands in front of the shrine to tell her son that she'll be back.

"I tried to reason with Danny that it's very difficult in the Army, but Danny says, yeah he knows the difficulty in the service," said Su Zhen, trembling and tearful, as Gee translated from the Chinese dialect of her hometown. "If he got killed in the line of duty at the front line, that's different. But under the circumstances, I feel extremely sad because it was a suicide -- but driven to suicide."

When Chen enlisted in the Army, he saw it as the first step to achieving his dream of one day becoming a New York City police officer, his parents said. But some ten months after joining, the 6' 3" bespectacled Army private was dead.

The Chens said they had been informed in fits and starts about the circumstances of their son’s death and alleged hazing by his fellow soldiers.

Two soldiers and a chaplain came to the Chens' apartment on Oct. 3 to tell them that their son had died but not how. Three days later, they got a call from Army investigators informing them that their son had been subject to some abuse for not having turned off the hot water heater in the shower. They eventually were told that two instances of abuse were when he was dragged out of his bed and made to crawl on the ground while rocks were thrown at his back, and he was forced to do chin-ups while holding liquid in his mouth that he was not allowed to swallow or spit out.

Chen's father, Yan Tao, a cook, said it was difficult for them to comprehend what happened.

"Initially, there was a great shock when we found out that Danny got killed, but when this came out, we felt extra sad that it happened that particular way," he said, also speaking through a translator. "Things like that should not happen in the Army. I think they should have better control over the condition, or the atmosphere, at the base."

"We want the truth to come out, so if it turns out to be something even worse ... we are willing to accept that," he added.

In a book from the memorial service held for him on Oct. 6 in Afghanistan, one soldier described Chen like any member new to the unit -- timid and shy, while another recalled him as cheerful, laughing at all jokes, and reading his "ranger hand book and learning the different movement formations." Yet another recalled that he was a needed replacement, and took up the rifleman post.

"From what I heard about him Danny never complained and always kept a smile on his face," wrote Cpt. Allred in a tribute to Chen. "He was a determined member of the team who sought to find his place among the battle hardened platoon living in a relatively austere environment."

Final care package
Chen's parents don't accept that their son killed himself. His father pointed to a cardboard box encircled by priority mail tape sitting on the floor. It was the last care package they sent to him, which he asked for in his third phone call to them from Afghanistan on Sept. 27, six days before his death.

"In the latest telephone call, he still asked his mom to send all of this good stuff and there's no indication ... that he would do it," Yan Tao said.

Su Zhen also said her son had no history of depression. In their last talk, when she asked him how the other soldiers were treating him, he said it was nothing that she should be concerned about, "the normal stuff." She said he hadn't mentioned any problems and had never spoken of any trouble with his fellow GIs.

But a cousin, Banny Chen, 18, said that Chen had complained in a Feb. 27 letter sent while he was at basic training in Georgia that he had been picked on because of his ethnicity.

"Since I'm the only Chinese person here, everyone knows me by Chen," the letter said. "They ask if I'm from China like a few times a day. They also call out my name, Chen, in a goat-like voice sometimes for no reason. No idea how it started but its just best to ignore it, I still respond though to amuse them. People crack jokes about Chinese people all the time. I'm running out of jokes to comeback (sic) at them."

At the time, Banny said he "didn't think it was really a big deal because I thought he would be used to ... racist jokes."

The pair kept in touch on Facebook while Chen was in Afghanistan. There didn't seem to be any problems and he just asked for junk food and updates on the family. He did seem homesick, Banny said, and he shared a Facebook message from Chen that read "its hard work, but its what i signed up for (sic)."

"None of this was really expected," Banny said, noting the aftermath was "stressful because of all the mystery behind what really happened."

'Happy-go-lucky'
Chen spoke English, Cantonese and his parents' dialect, liked to play handball and video games and embraced Chinese culture, his father said, laughing at the memory of his son praying at Chinese New Year that his mother wouldn't get upset with him for the bad things he may do in the coming year. Yan Tao described his son as a bit mischievous at times, getting into small, inconsequential troubles, but his mother noted that he was "happy-go-lucky" and a good student.

A photo album he made in grade school showed him playing around with two cousins, including Banny. Other pictures from after completing basic training in Georgia showed him goofing around with relatives, putting "rabbit ears" on one of them.

"He was like the comic relief of the ... family," Banny said. "He used to get the class clown awards in elementary school."

Chen decided he wanted to become a police officer after being the victim of an attack following the family's move into the housing project on the Lower East Side several years ago from Chinatown -- the bustling, busy playground of his youth. Some boys chased him for blocks, calling him "Chinese." During the attack, he was punched in the head and his glasses were broken. A bystander intervened and called the police, but Danny said he did not want to press charges.

"Danny said ... (they're) very young so maybe it's very bad for them" in the future if they have a record, his aunt, Lucy Chen, recalled him saying. Tapping her chest, she said of Chen: "The heart is very good."

As the Chinese New Year approaches -- it is the last week in January, kicking off the Year of the Dragon -- the Chens have no plans to celebrate what is seen as the "renewal of life."

"I don't have the desire to do any of the ceremony that is normally associated with the Chinese New Year," Su Zhen said through sobs, noting the painful absence of her son's voice. "I'm too sad to participate."

Chen is buried at a cemetery in the New York suburbs. His parents have bought the plots next to his, so they can be together in death. Despite their loss, they said they hope that what happened to him will force the Army to make changes to prevent other deaths.

"Hopefully that's the case," Su Zhen said, "that he would not die in vain."

 

 

Army prosecutors will be in a tough spot pursuing charges of negligent homicide and involuntary manslaughter against five soldiers in connection with the death of an Asian-American GI whose family and advocates say was the victim of racial taunting, bullying and hazing, according to military law experts.

Pvt. Danny Chen, 19, of New York, was found dead in a guard tower in southern Afghanistan from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot on Oct. 3, according to Army investigators.

Eight soldiers, including an officer, were charged Wednesday in connection with Chen's death, and five were accused of the most serious charges -- involuntary manslaughter to negligent homicide. They “relate to conduct that occurred in the time leading up to his death,” Dave Connolly, chief public affairs officer for Regional Command South in Afghanistan, wrote in an email, declining to provide further detail.

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Chen, the son of immigrants from southern China, was not depressed but had suffered emotional and physical abuse in the military: He was dragged from his bed and made to crawl while rocks were thrown at his back and was forced to hold liquid in his mouth while doing chin-ups during his two months in Afghanistan, according to accounts from his family, who said they got the information from Army investigators. He also endured racial taunting, including having his last name said in a goat-like voice and other soldiers calling him Jackie Chan, while undergoing training in Georgia, according to letters he wrote to his family and diary entries, said Elizabeth OuYang, New York branch president of OCA, a national civil rights organization serving Asian Pacific Americans.

At the time of his death, Chen had been in the military for seven months; he had deployed to Afghanistan in August.

The negligent homicide and involuntary manslaughter charges in  cases of hazing leading to suicide in the U.S. military appear to be a first, said Grover Baxley, a former member of the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps, and Hank Nuwer, who has done decades of research on hazing in schools and the military.

“It’s interesting that they’re making -- as I see it -- a leap from hazing to being criminally responsible for a self-inflicted gunshot death,” said Baxley.

He said that in similar cases where the government had gotten hazing convictions, prosecutors could argue in the sentencing phase that hazing was an aggravating factor contributing to death.

“In the Army case, they've taken it a step further and they're actually charging them with criminal responsibility for … Private Chen’s death, and that’s a big distinction,” he said.

Prosecutors still must present their evidence at an “Article 32” hearing – the equivalent of a grand jury in civilian law – after which an investigating officer will determine whether to sustain the charges.

Negligent homicide is defined in military law as "the killing of another person through simple negligence," Baxley said. The US Legal website defines involuntary manslaughter as "manslaughter without any malice or intention," it said.

Under the negligent homicide charge, the government must show that Chen’s death not only resulted from a negligent act by the soldiers but was the “proximate cause” of it, said Baxley, who now has a private practice, JAG Defense.

“That is, that Pvt. Chen’s death was the natural and probable result of the soldiers’ negligent acts,” he wrote in an email. “While I have not seen the evidence in this case … if repeated acts of hazing by numerous individuals are the ‘negligent acts’ that form the basis for the charge, it’s going to be difficult to demonstrate that any one particular soldier’s behavior was the proximate cause of Pvt. Chen’s self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

Greg Rinckey, a former attorney with the U.S. Army JAG Corps, said he agreed with that assessment and noted that the defense would likely try to find evidence, for example, that Chen was fragile, had previously been suicidal or didn’t want to deploy. “They’re going to look at all these things to try and shift the blame from these soldiers are the proximate cause as to, ‘No, the proximate cause was he was predisposed really to suicide,’” he said.

The most serious charges also could be a way of trying to pressure one or more of the defendants into cooperating with prosecutors in exchange for lesser charges or immunity, Rinckey said.

Little is known about the Army's case at this point, but prosecutors "might have a hard time proving this. What could very well happen in a case like this is there could be a plea,” said Rinckey, managing partner of Tully Rinckey PLLC.

“It’s the first person that comes forward is usually the one that gets the sweetest deal,” he added.

A combination of factors – racial, political, a military superior focused on ending hazing – could have also led the Army to impose the rare charges, said Nuwer, an author of several books on the issue.

“Look at the climate in the country. There is a lot of public outcry over the death of Robert Champion at Florida A&M … and it’s kind of outraged the country,” he said, referring to the hazing death of a university band member on Nov. 19. “The other is the hazing has gotten to a point where we’ve now had a death in a fraternity or athletic team or band in a college every year from 1970 to 2011, and sometimes more than that.”

Nuwer, who noted that he was unaware of any similar charges being filed in a civilian court, said that hazing and harassment are rarely aimed at causing death

The soldiers at Combat Outpost Palace in the Panjwa'i district of Kandahar province, where Chen was stationed, may have been trying to push him out of the service or giving him the chance to change his behavior, he said.

“It’s going to be very rare that somebody tries to drive somebody to suicide,” Nuwer said of the hazing. “There’s a theatrical aspect to it. The verbal abuse is often manufactured and escalated to put a lesson into the person, and in effect, the men are often acting for each other. ...

“Then you have a kind of group think that takes over, and a kind of group energy where the whole group together does things to the individual that all of them alone would not have done.”

The military has a "zero-tolerance" policy of hazing, but it still happens, experts say.

“It's a delicate balancing act, because it’s always been in the military and it’s always going to be,” Rinckey said. “It’s very hard for soldiers and sailors that are going to be going into combat together to not have initiation rituals.”

But, he noted: “I think the military is beginning to take hazing very seriously and I think this case is a highlight of that … to how serious they’ll take it, where they’ll charge soldiers with manslaughter and negligent homicide.”

One recent case was that of Lance Cpl. Harry Lew, who was hazed by fellow Marines, according to a U.S. military report on his April 3 death. The military accused three Marines of beating Lew hours before he killed himself and charged them with hazing. They face court martial, The San Jose Mercury News reported.

After a Wednesday morning press conference held in New York by Chen’s family and Asian-American advocates, a senior Pentagon official offered condolences to the soldier’s relatives.

“We treat each other with respect and dignity or we go home -- that’s it,” Navy Capt. John Kirby said, according to a Pentagon news service report. “The tolerance is absolutely zero and the system itself, because it works and works well, is in fact, a deterrent to future behavior.”

“Unfortunately, you’re never going to be 100 percent perfect in this. And there’s going to be those few who want to (flout) what the uniform stands for and what the regulations require … when that happens they’re going to be dealt with.”

Chen's family and advocates are not convinced that his death was a suicide, despite the initial finding that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and have asked forensic expert Henry Lee to conduct an independent autopsy. Chen's mother, Su Zhen, 49, said she had not wanted her only child to join the Army and at the  press conference said she “could not figure out why they (the soldiers) would do this to him."

OuYang, of the OCA, said her organization does not want the defendants to be allowed to plea bargain.

"It's one thing to charge them with high charges, but it means nothing if they plea bargain to something very low," she said. "... If they are responsible for his death they need to be charged and found guilty of that."

The drum major of Florida A&M University's famous marching band died of hazing, according to authorities who ruled his death a homicide Friday.

Robert Champion, 26, of Decatur, Ga., died Nov. 19 after a football game in Orlando, Fla. The Orange County Medical Examiner's office said in a report obtained Friday by NBC News that Champion died of "blunt force trauma sustained during a hazing incident."

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From the beginning, authorities suspected that hazing was involved in Champion's death. Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said at the time that criminal charges were possible.

Julian White, the band's longtime director, was fired four days later for what the university said was his inability to stop hazing in the band and the music department.

FAMU has a history of problems with hazing:

• In 2001, a band member was hospitalized because of hazing. 
• In 2006, fraternity brothers stood trial for alleged hazing. 
• Earlier this year, the school confirmed that as many as 30 band members were released because of their involvement in hazing.
• In October, police arrested three band members on charges that they beat a female band member so severely during hazing rituals that they broke her thigh.

Another person claims hazing by Florida A&M band

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said this week that its investigation of Champion's death had uncovered possible employee fraud and misconduct. An FDLE spokesman wouldn't discuss details of the investigation, but he told NBC station WESH of Orlando that it will now be handled separately from the criminal investigation of Champion's death. 

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NBC station WESH of Orkando, Fla., contributed to this report by M. Alex Johnson of msnbc.com. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

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In an interview with NBC station WXIA of Atlanta, Julian White, who had directed the famous Marching 100 since 1998, said he still does not know why drum major Robert Champion collapsed Nov. 19 at a hotel in Orlando, Fla., after a football game. He later died at an Orlando hospital.

• Read the full report from WXIA's Blayne Alexander at 11alive.com

Authorities have yet to issue an official cause of death, but they have said hazing likely was involved.

"What (the students) did, I don't know," White said. "I think that is something that is part of the ongoing investigation."

White said he didn't ask others students what had happened because he was preoccupied with getting Champion to the hospital.

Two students have filed lawsuits claiming they were hazed during White's 13 years in charge of the world-renowned band. White received notice from the university that he would be dismissed, a ruling he is appealing.

• Another person claims hazing by Florida A&M band

"In all cases where I suspect there's hazing involved, I take immediate action," White said. "My job is to report it to the proper authorities, which in this case is the university police department, and that I have done."

White's comments came a day after Champion was buried Wednesday in Decatur, Ga., his hometown. He was wearing his Florida A&M University Marching 100 uniform and held a baton in the open casket.

This article includes reporting by NBC station WXIA at 11alive.com and msnbc.com staff.