Carson Briere will not suit up for the Mercyhurst Lakers hockey team next season after he was caught on video pushing an unoccupied wheelchair down a set of stairs at a bar.
The university announced his removal from the team on Monday.
“Carson Briere has been removed from the Mercyhurst University Men’s Ice Hockey Team,” the team’s account shared on Twitter. “Mercyhurst cannot comment further on the matter.”
The 23-year-old is facing misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief resulting in damage to property and a summary count of disorderly conduct.
Briere and Patrick Carozzi, a 21-year-old senior on the Lakers lacrosse team, were caught on surveillance cameras pushing a wheelchair owned by double amputee Sydney Benes down a set of stairs at Sullivan’s Pub and Eatery in Erie on March 11.
According to Benes, the student-athletes damaged her chair’s left brake handle, broke the right arm rest’s plastic molding, bent a rear handle and caused the wheels to drag when moving forward.
Their actions also posed a potential danger to anyone coming up the stairs, while also creating a hazardous condition by blocking the staircase, per Erie, Penn. police.
Per Benes, bouncers had Briere apologize to her, though she found his attempts to be “insincere.”
The bar banned the athletes involved.
A GoFundMe to help Benes repair her chair raised $8,811 dollar before being the organizer stopped accepting donations.
Benes, who bought the chair last year for $2,000, said she would donate any leftover money to those who need it.
According to a March 30 update on a fundraising page to help Benes repair her chair, it was deemed unrepairable.
Briere and his father Danny Briere — a former Flyers star and the franchise’s interim general manager — offered statements apologizing after the incident went viral on Twitter.
“I am deeply sorry for my behavior on Saturday,” Briere said. “There is no excuse for my actions, and I will do whatever I can to make up for this serious lack of judgment.”
The elder Briere called his son’s actions “inexcusable,” and said Carson “accepts full responsibility for his behavior.”
Briere, a junior, was dismissed from the Arizona State hockey program in 2019 for what the school called a violation of team rules.
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