A 48-year-old man was arrested Saturday after police say he pushed another man he had been arguing with down a flight of stairs at TD Garden during a Boston Bruins game.
The man, Aaron Tucker, is charged with one count each of assault and battery causing serious bodily injury and assault and battery with injury on a disabled person or person over 60.
A Boston Police officer working a paid detail at TD Garden on Saturday responded to a radio call at 3:07 p.m. for a person who fell off a balcony during a Bruins-New York Rangers game.
Multiple officers went to Loge Section 2, where TD Garden Security had found an unconscious man who had fallen down stairs from the balcony level above. The man was lying on the ground, semi-conscious with his eyes slightly open and breathing, according to the report.
The man, whose name is redacted from the report, was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital for treatment of a head injury. On the way to the hospital, the man told police he had been drinking, didn’t remember the incident and was unsure why he was being taken to a hospital, according to the report.
Officers at the arena spoke to several witnesses who were sitting near the man. A witness sitting in the same row as the man told police he was intoxicated and had been agitating Tucker and his girlfriend, according to the report.
Another witness said Tucker and the man were heckling one another back and forth as the man moved closer toward Tucker and his girlfriend. As the man moved closer, Tucker grabbed him by the neck and pushed him, the witness told police, according to the report.
A third witness provided a description of a suspect to police, identifying him as a white man with long hair in a white Rangers jersey. She told officers the man who was injured was harassing other Rangers fans and his friends tried to get him to leave to avoid a further escalation.
Another witness told police he saw Tucker’s girlfriend trying to get him to leave, then saw Tucker and the man arguing. The witness told police Tucker departed after pushing the man down the stairs, according to the report.
After identifying Tucker as a suspect, police arrested him in the area of Lafayette Avenue and Endicott Street, roughly a third of a mile from the Garden.