A man is in jail and a Southern Utah University fraternity has had its charter suspended after a stabbing near campus.
Cedar City Police arrested Eric Stein, 23, on investigation of aggravated assault on Thursday and booked him into the Iron County Jail. The victim of the stabbing, Peter Wagner, 23, was cited for assault, a class B misdemeanor.
Police said a fight started during a party at the Sigma Nu fraternity house on SUU's campus early Sunday morning and continued outside. Wagner is a member of the Greek group, although SUU officials say Stein is not a student.
"To the best of our ability to discern this, the victim followed the suspect down the road threatening him, trying to get him to fight," Sgt. Jerry Womack said Thursday. "He ended up assaulting Stein."
Officers said Stein retaliated by breaking a beer bottle and stabbing Wagner in the neck.
"He had a stab wound on his chest and other cuts," Womack said. "This could have very easily have been a homicide rather than just an aggravated assault."
Police said Wagner needed surgery for his wounds. Both men had been drinking at the party, investigators said.
"We've had problems off and on over the years," Womack said of the Sigma Nu fraternity. Within the past year, police had responded five times to the frat house. "In fairness, we have other apartments that aren't fraternities that we have lots more problems at."
The fight outside the Sigma Nu house isn't the first time the fraternity has come under scrutiny by both local police and SUU officials. Complaints about fights, drinking and vandalism had already landed the fraternity on the school's watch list, said Del Beatty, director of student involvement at SUU.
The Sigma Nu national board, headquartered in Virginia, officially suspended the SUU chapter this week, although the house had been on probation already this year. Along with disturbance complaints at the house, the fraternity's members had also been in trouble for dipping grades.
As a group, the fraternity only posted a 1.9 grade point average over the last three semesters, Beatty said.
"The Sigma Nu chapter has a rich history at SUU, but we've had some concerns about the activity of the men on our campus," he said. "As the opposition continues to mount, I just decided I'm not going to protect the fraternity from the criticism."
Beatty added the national board will come to review the Sigma Nu chapter in the fall and may reopen the house.
"Right now, they are nonexistent," he said.
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