Two student athletes have been charged after video showed a woman’s wheelchair being pushed down stairs

Story at a glance

• Charges of criminal misdemeanor and criminal conspiracy to commit criminal mischief have been filed against lacrosse player Patrick Caruzzi and hockey player Carson Breer, Erie police said.

• Brier and Carotzi also face summary charges of disorderly conduct.

ERIE, Pennsylvania (WJET) – two student-athletes from Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania, are now facing criminal charges after Surveillance video emerged from a bar showing them pushing a disabled woman’s wheelchair down the stairs While she was in the shower earlier this month.

Charges of misdemeanor criminal mischief and criminal conspiracy to commit criminal mischief have been filed against lacrosse player Patrick Caruzzi and hockey player Carson Brier — son of Daniel Brier, a former National Hockey League player and interim general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers — in the incident, Erie police said.

Brier and Carotzi also face summary charges of disorderly conduct. They are billed by postage.

In the surveillance video below, Brier and Carrozzi are seen surrounding the empty wheelchair, which was said to have been left at the top of the stairs at Sullivan’s Irish Pub after its owner, Sidney Bennis, was moved to the pub’s basement bathrooms. Briere then sits in the vacant wheelchair before getting up and pushing him down the stairs.

After the incident, an employee of Sullivan’s company said he threw Brier out of the bar.

Nate Sanders, Sullivan’s director of security, told Nexstar’s WJET.

Brier issued a statement Last week, he referred to his “serious lack of judgment” while saying he was “deeply sorry.”

It was him and Carusi Permanently banned from the pub. Both men were placed, as well as a third, unidentified student-athlete Temporary suspension of their teams by Mercyhurst Athletics.

Bennis, the wheelchair owner, I spoke with WJET after the incident. The 22-year-old lost her legs after a car accident in 2021 that left her trapped in a burning car. She suffered third-degree burns to 34 percent of her body, mostly from the waist down, which led doctors to amputate both of her feet.

The former soccer player said she also developed a bad infection, which forced doctors to amputate her legs.

“I have to go through a lot and people treat my stuff like that? The stuff I use to get around?” Bennis said. She hopes to use the newfound concern to stand up for others. “We’re treated like things, like second-class citizens, we’re not treated with respect.”

Preliminary hearings for Brier and Karoozi are scheduled for May 22.

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