On Dec. 5, The FAMUan newspaper later reported that it had received
official university documents confirming the identities of three of the four
students.
According to FAMUan staffers, the students were: “Head Drum
Major Jonathan Boyce, a 24-year-old senior from Marietta, Ga., along with
fellow drum majors Shawn Turner, 25 of Atlanta, and Rikki Wills, 23 of Miami.”
The Champion case file released by authorities this week
shows exactly why the ex-students named by The FAMUan article all needed to be
permanently barred from the university.
“I'm Robert's roommate so I decided I was going to help him
get through. So I pushed him through,” Wills told investigators.
“I see him reaching (to touch the
back of the bus), so I grab him to try to keep everybody off him,” Boyce said.
“I am pulling him and I see people kicking him. I put my body around his body
and I am pulling him. Me and Shawn.”
Turner described how he pulled
Champion’s arm free from Caleb (C.J.) Jackson, one of the alleged attackers. “When I snagged
him loose from C.J. he fell into the wall,” Turner said. “And then of course
once he touched the wall that’s when he stopped.”
These three drum majors might think they acted bravely. But
their actions ultimately added to the problem. Pulling and pushing Champion through
a bus filled with people who were beating him was a lot like dragging an
individual deeper into the flames of a burning building instead of carrying
that person outside.
Champion’s drum major “brothers” helped facilitate the “Bus
C” hazing process.
If those three men
had seriously wanted to protect Champion, they would have called the police after
learning that he was heading into an illegal activity. They would have also
fought to break up the hazing process instead of cooperating to assist in its
completion.