BREAKING NEWS : MARCH 2, 2009-- For a video clip of the story, click here --
A college student from Queens who died near an upstate university was on an 11-hour alcohol binge during an initiation ritual for a "drinking club," police said.
Arman Partamian, 19, of Flushing, was found unresponsive about 11 a.m. Sunday inside a nonsanctioned frat house known as The Pigs near the SUNY Geneseo campus.
Partamian, a sophomore who majored in biology, was in the second week of an eight-week pledging process for the club.
He started drinking about 1 p.m. and kept going until being carried to a room around midnight, said State Police spokesman Mark O'Donnell.
"To become a member, you have to drink a lot of alcohol," O'Donnell said.
Some 20 to 30 others were at the bacchanalia Saturday in a garage-turned-bar at the house.
"This is an organization we would characterize as a renegade organization," said Robert Bonfiglio, vice president for student and campus life at the college, located south of Rochester in the Finger Lakes region.
The fraternity was banned more than a decade ago after two students were hospitalized with alcohol poisoning.
Cops are looking to charge those who provided booze to the party and are also considering charges for hazing, O'Donnell said.
Partamian graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 2007. He was a volunteer at the Geneseo Fire Department.
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