Braintree Man Arrested After Stabbing At Celtics Game At TD Garden
BOSTON (CBS) – A Braintree man has been arrested in connection with a stabbing at a Celtics game at the TD Garden Wednesday night.
The suspect, 20-year-old Brandon Jones, is charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and will be arraigned Friday. He was arrested during a traffic stop.
As the Celtics were closing out a 95-92 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies, a fight broke out in the balcony around 9:45 p.m.
One spectator recorded video of the incident, which was posted on Deadspin overnight.
Two men in Rajon Rondo jerseys appeared to get into an argument, a scuffle broke out and one man can be seen shaking his hand.
Boston Police told WBZ-TV they believe one man used a box cutter to stab the other.
A short time later, a man in his 20's was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital in an ambulance with what police called "non-life-threatening injuries."
A friend of the unidentified victim told WBZ he spent the night in the hospital.
Matt Kirkham, a fan sitting about 15 rows in front of the brawl, called into 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich show on Thursday morning to give his eyewitness account.
He estimated that about 20 to 30 people were involved, and said alcohol was a factor.
"Both parties were intoxicated beyond belief, that's the first thing," Kirkham said. "They had been yelling."
Listen to witness accounts:
Kirkham never saw a knife, but said he had to pull apart two men who rolled down about five to 10 rows while fighting.
"How that escalated I don't know, but it did," he said.
He said security showed up "very late," but the fight broke up quickly after that, and someone in a bloody Celtics jersey was led away.
Several other fans at the game told WBZ they had no idea someone had been stabbed.
"Such a fun game too, to have something like that happen at the end. It's really sad," Tom Nastasia said.
"It's sad that we have to increase our security everywhere now. It's just unfortunate," a woman told WBZ.
"It was a great game, everyone was having a good time and you hate to hear something like that," said another woman.
"Fan safety is TD Garden's top priority and we operate under industry standard security procedures for every event. We are fully cooperating with Boston Police in their investigation of an altercation that occurred last night, and are also in communication with the Celtics and the NBA regarding the incident," Tricia McCorkle, the Director of Communications for the Garden, said in a statement Thursday.
Security lines ahead of Thursday night's Bruins game were noticeably longer. Fans say they were subjected to security wands and asked to remove metal from their pockets.
"Slower to get through the lines," Bruins fan Ted Lorenzetti said. "They were a little bit more thorough with the backpacks and stuff like that."
The Celtics play at the Garden again on Friday night.