The parents of a University of Alabama student who was found dead in Tuscaloosa’s Black Warrior River in 2021 are suing Delta Chi fraternity, which they say “miserably failed their son” in the days and weeks before his death.

Garrett Walker, a 20-year-old junior Aerospace Engineering major, became intoxicated and disappeared Sunday, Nov. 7. His body was found two days later, and his death ruled an accidental drowning.

Walker’s parents, Andrew and Debbie Walker, filed a lawsuit in 2022 – on the one-year anniversary of his death – against The Gray Lady bar, which attorneys said continued to serve alcohol to Walker when he was already intoxicated as well as other underaged students.

On Friday, that lawsuit was amended to include Delta Chi’s national organization. The UA chapter of the fraternity is not named as a defendant.

Attorney Josh Hayes from Prince, Glover & Hayes said Walker, as well as some other fraternity brothers, had received a “no contact” order after an alleged hazing incident.

He said had the fraternity conducted an appropriate investigation, they would have known that Walker was not involved in any alleged incident of hazing, that he was a good young man who did good deeds and that he was held in high esteem by classmates, friends and fraternity brothers.

“Delta Chi International and its leadership substantially contributed to the death of Garrett Walker as, had he not been wrongfully kept away from his fraternity house fraternity brothers, he would have been celebrating the University of Alabama’s Nov. 6 football win at the house with his brothers rather than meeting some of them outside of the fraternity house the night he died,’’ Hayes said.

Delta Chi International did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit.

Walker’s body was found 36 feet below the surface of the Black Warrior River on Nov. 9, 2021.

His cause of death was determined to be accidental drowning, and the lawsuit states toxicology reports found his blood alcohol content to be .212, or nearly three times the legal limit.

Hayes in the lawsuit said Delta Chi International also failed Walker after his death, in stark contrast to the way the fraternity handled the death earlier this year of University of Missouri student and Delta Chi member Riley Strain.

Strain died in the Cumberland River in March after a night out in downtown, and was also intoxicated, a Metro Nashville police investigation found.

A Nov. 10, 2021 letter from then-Executive Director Jerod L. Breit and then-Director of Member Safety Davis B. Millard to Delta Chi members at UA offered members “thoughts and deepest sympathies” but did not mention Walker by name.

“Although the subject of the letter was clearly the Garrett Walker loss, the letter did not have the decency or courtesy to contain the name of the departed,’’ Hayes said.

The letter also stated, “we are just a call or text away,’’ but the attorney called that a “false promise.”

Hayes went on to say the Delta Chi did not reach out to the Walker family after his death, and still has not done so three years later.

“This reaction by Delta Chi stands in star contrast to how this same fraternity handled an eerily similar matter involving University of Missouri student Rile Strain,’’ Hayes said. “Within two weeks of Riley going missing, Delta Chi issued a press release justifiably ‘mourning the passing of their esteemed fraternity brother’ and pledging ‘to provide support and resources to all those affected by this tragedy.”

Hayes said he does not know why Delta Chi treated Walker’s death differently than Strain’s death but said that is something he hopes to find out as the lawsuit progresses.

“Interestingly and ironically when compared to how Delta Chi treated Garrett, this same press release notes that the fraternity ‘is dedicated to creating and cultivating…friendship and belonging,’’ Hayes said. “Friendship and belonging are nowhere to be found from Delta Chi in the final days of Garrett’s life or in the days following his death.”

“Even today,” Hayes said, “there is no mention of Garrett on the Delta Chi website, again in contrast to Riley Strain.”

The family is asking for an unspecified amount of money to “punish these defendants, to protect the public, to save lives and to prevent similar wrongs from occurring in the future,’’ Hayes said.

“Furthermore, Garrett Walker’s family demands a commitment from Delta Chi that positive changes will made so that something like this never impacts another young man and his family,’’ Hayes said. “They also request a long overdue apology and accountability for what happened to Garrett and the role Delta Chi played.”

“Garret Walker is remembered for the way he lived, not the way he died,’’ Hayes said. “He was and is an inspiration to all who knew him and his legacy of kindness and service lives on through the Garrett Walker Joshua 1:9 Foundation.”