Kyle Adam Maraghy, 26, was arrested and charged with simple assault on Friday after he was allegedly at the center of a fight that broke out on Thursday night
The Carolina Panthers fan who was caught on video punching an old man during Thursday night’s game has been arrested.
Kyle Adam Maraghy, 26, was charged with simple assault and taken to Mecklenburg Jail in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he is being held on $1,500 bond.
Maraghy was wanted after video went viral of him at Bank of America Stadium as Carolina Panthers fans were watching their team take on the Philadelphia Eagles.
The video shows Maraghy, wearing a Cam Newton jersey, turn around and address an older man seated behind him, wearing a white T-shirt.
Maraghy then proceeds to punch the older man several times, causing blood to stream down the victim’s face. The older man did not fight back.
Fans seated around the dueling pair stepped in to separate them, and eventually the younger man grabbed his girlfriend and left.
The fight took place at Bank of America Stadium as Carolina Panthers fans were watching their team take on the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night
The man in the white T-shirt complained to the couple seated in front of him that they were blocking his view by standing for the majority of the game
The man on the left, wearing a Cam Newton Jersey and believed to be Maraghy, then punched the older man
Warren Carrigan, who shot the video, wrote in the caption that the older man complained to the couple for standing throughout the game – blocking his view.
‘Dude bro & his chicka were standing for the entire game. words gradually got more and more escalated,’ Carrigan wrote.
Things got so bad that eventually a single mom and her son seated nearby got up and left.
The man on the left continued to punch the older man a handful of times before bystanders broke up the fight
The older man started bleeding profusely from the face. He did not fight back
The younger man got his girlfriend and left after the fight. She continued to yell as the two left
‘After that, the lid was off. The dude took offense to the couple never sitting down and obstructing his view,’ Carrigan wrote.
‘The victim telling the dude bro how they’re being jerks and how rude they are for not sitting. The dude bro turns around and calls the victim a “geriatric f***”, “f****t”, and ‘hick’. Then sucker punches him right in the face.’
He added: ‘I don’t know if he got away or left in handcuffs, but I hope it’s the latter.’
Carrigan said the aggressor was seated in section 541 row 24 seat 10. He said both he and the victim were wearing Panthers gear.
After the video started circulating on social media, the Panthers said they were working with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police to investigate the incident.
‘We are aware of it and are in contact with club security,’ NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart said, per Pro Football Talk. ‘We have robust security plans in place at all of our games. … We take all of these very seriously.’
After the video started circulating on social media, the Panthers said they were working with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police to investigate the incident
Maraghy, who has a tattoo of a hammer modeled after the comic book character Thor with the Panthers’ phrase ‘Keep Pounding’, has had several infractions and criminal complaints issued against him since 2011
Maraghy (left, with his girlfriend) was charged with reckless driving in 2015 and has had a number of traffic citations including speeding, deviating from a traffic lane and having an expired vehicle registration
Maraghy, who has a tattoo of a hammer modeled after the comic book character Thor with the Panthers’ phrase ‘Keep Pounding’, has had several infractions and criminal complaints issued against him since 2011.
Twice since 2013, he has been arrested for assault, with one time being assault and battery, but details on the incidents were unavailable.
In 2015, he was charged with reckless driving. Maraghy has had a number of traffic citations including speeding, deviating from a traffic lane and having an expired vehicle registration.