A U.S. Secret Service agent has been arrested and charged with attempted manslaughter after a fraternity hazing in Miami left two men with injuries so severe one needed skin grafts and the other was intubated in critical care.

Marquez Christopher Pinder, 29, who works in the Secret Service's Miami field office, was charged alongside Lamar James, 26, and Elijah Delano Dyous, 29, according to the office of Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle (Town & Country). All three face counts of attempted manslaughter with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and hazing with a deadly weapon.

The alleged hazing took place in early April and involved prolonged, repeated beatings with canes and paddles. Prosecutors said the beatings were triggered when the victims failed to correctly answer questions about the fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi, a historically Black fraternity founded in 1911 at Indiana University. NBC News, which first reported the story, noted that the beatings led to kidney failure in at least one victim (NBC News).

The two victims are adults, not undergraduates. One is a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue employee. The other is a student at the University of Miami School of Law. One victim's injuries required skin grafts to cover dead tissue. The other had to be intubated and received critical care to prevent further physical deterioration and death (Town & Country).

Florida state investigators uncovered the evidence leading to the charges, which were reported on or around July 28, 2026 (The Guardian). Pinder was placed under "total lockdown" house arrest following the charges (ABC News). The Secret Service placed him on administrative leave following his arrest (CBS News).

Both Kappa Alpha Psi and the University of Miami moved quickly to distance themselves from the incident. The university stated that Pinder is not affiliated with the school and that the incident has nothing to do with the university or its chapter of the fraternity. Kappa Alpha Psi said the arrested men are not active or financial members, have no official affiliation with any chapter, and lack authority to conduct any program on the fraternity's behalf. The fraternity said the case involved an alumni chapter — grown adults, not students on a campus.

Jimmy McMikle, the national president of Kappa Alpha Psi, said the fraternity maintains a zero-tolerance policy on hazing (Town & Country).

The case is now working through the Miami-Dade criminal courts.