UA Student's Family Adds Fraternity To Wrongful Death Lawsuit

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Attorneys representing the family of a University of Alabama student who drowned in the Black Warrior River three years ago have added an international fraternity as a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit against a Tuscaloosa bar.

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As Patch previously reported, the body of Garrett Walker was recovered on the afternoon of Nov. 9, 2021, following two days of searching after he went missing during the early morning hours.

Walker was last seen alive on Greensboro Avenue at The Gray Lady at 1:15 a.m. the morning he went missing, with evidence prompting Walker's parents to first file the civil suit in Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court on the one-year anniversary of their son's death.

Tuscaloosa attorney Josh Hayes of Prince Glover Hayes held a press conference Friday to announce that Delta Chi Fraternity has now been added to the civil lawsuit against The Gray Lady.

The bar is being sued for allegedly over-serving Walker, who was a minor at the time, and for lying to Walker's parents about how many cameras were operating in the bar.

The lawsuit says that after Walker's body was recovered by divers 36 feet below the surface of the river, his blood alcohol level was 0.212.

Separately, the complaint against Delta Chi's national office claims that Walker was unjustly kicked out of the fraternity at UA due to a hazing investigation. The international office is the defendant in the civil suit, Hayes pointed out before saying that the local chapter was not being sued.

Hayes said a probe concluded that Walker was not involved in any instances of hazing. Still, Walker and others in the fraternity were reportedly issued a "no contact order" by the University of Alabama in the fall of 2021.

Attorneys for Walker's family insist that Delta Chi International contributed to Walker's death by wrongfully keeping him away from the fraternity.

"Had he not been wrongfully kept away from the fraternity, he would have been celebrating the LSU game on Nov. 6 and not where he was eventually [at The Gray Lady]," Hayes said.

Hayes said discovery in the case will proceed as soon as Delti Chi is served with the complaint.

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