Kingston, Ont. hockey dad charged with assault at Whitby game
Global News
A Kingston man who is facing assault charges in connection with an alleged 'hockey rage' incident at a rink in Whitby is speaking out to share his side of the story.
Shawn Melo is covered in cuts and bruises and is sporting a broken elbow after being involved in an altercation at one of his son’s hockey games in Whitby, Ont., last week.
“I was running for my life, to be honest,” Melo says.
He says he was attacked by 10 to 12 young men, around the age of 18, while standing outside the Iroquois Park Sports Centre after being asked to leave.
“Basically, they just swarmed me,” says Melo. “And I repeated, ‘Back up, back up, let the police come,’ and things like that, and they just continued to chase me.”
When the police did arrive, the Durham Regional Police Service (DRPS) handcuffed Melo and charged him with assault and causing a disturbance by fighting.
Video provided to Global News by Melo shows what he claims is a large group affiliated with the Whitby team attacking him outside the sports complex.
He is punched, tripped and kicked while on the ground. This all happens after he was asked to leave the game due to a previous altercation inside between Melo and a young hockey player.
“The report was that the individual grabbed the player as he was exiting the ice surface,” says DRPS director of corporate communications Chris Bovie. “This individual grabbed the player and shoved him to the ground, which caused others to intervene and created this fracas that kind of spilled out into outside of the arena.”