East Coast Hockey League suspends player indefinitely after alleged racist gesture towards black opponent

[ad_1]

By Jacob Lev, CNN

The East Coast Hockey League has suspended Jacksonville Icemen defenseman Jacob Panetta indefinitely after he allegedly made a racist gesture towards South Carolina Stingrays defenseman Jordan Subban during Saturday’s game, the league announced.

A hearing is to be held between the league and the Professional Hockey Players Association. In a statement on Sunday, Icemen CEO Andy Kaufmann said the team will release Panetta effective immediately.

“On behalf of the entire Icemen organization, we apologize to everyone who was offended and look forward to beginning the healing process together,” the statement read.

The alleged gesture took place during overtime and resulted in a fight. Afterwards, the Icemen tweeted: “Overtime started with a tough fight resulting in multiple penalties on both sides.”

Subban, who is black, replied to this tweet and said that Panetta made monkey gestures at him: “More like @JPanetta12 was too cowardly to fight me and as soon as I started to turn his back on me he started making monkey gestures at me so I punched him in the face several times and he tortured himself like the coward he is.

CNN has seen video of the fight but is unable to verify Subban’s claim.

PK Subban, brother of Jordan Subban and defenseman for the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League, criticized Panetta on social media after the game.

“They don’t call the east coast league the jungle because my brother and the other black players are monkeys!” PK Subban wrote. “Hey @jacobpanetta you shouldn’t be so quick delete your twitter or instagram you’ll probably be able to play again…that’s what the story says but things change.”

The ECHL told CNN the league will not comment further until the hearing is complete.

The Icemen said they are “fully cooperating with the League on their review of the incident and will provide feedback and make decisions based on our core values ​​following the League’s review.”

Stingrays president Rob Concannon released a statement on Sunday in support of Subban following the ECHL’s decision to suspend Panetta.

“The South Carolina Stingrays are disgusted by last night’s incident involving Jordan Subban,” the statement read. “Our organization supports his friend and teammate, Jordan, and all other players who continue to face racism and discrimination. This behavior must stop and is unacceptable.

This is the second alleged racist incident to take place in the NHL’s minor league system in the past two weeks. The American Hockey League on Friday suspended San Jose Barracuda forward Krystof Hrabik for 30 games for directing a racist gesture towards Boko Imama of the Tucson Roadrunners during a Jan. 12 game.

The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Eric Levenson contributed to this report.

[ad_2]