Carson Briere has been fired from the Mercyhurst University men’s hockey team, the school announced Monday.
The decision to remove Briere from the show comes just over three weeks after video posted to social media showed Briere and another Mercyhurst student-athlete pushing an unoccupied wheelchair up a stairwell.
Video from March 11 shows that Briere, a junior, was talking to two people at a local bar. They were at the top of the stairs to the bar next to the empty wheelchair. Briere momentarily sat in the wheelchair before standing up and pushing the wheelchair up a flight of stairs and then walking towards the bar. Briere and Patrick Carrozzi, who plays for the Mercyhurst lacrosse team, were indicted March 20 with three counts of misdemeanor criminal mischief, criminal conspiracy to commit mischief and disorderly conduct.
Briere, a son of philadelphia flyers Interim general manager Daniel Briere and Carrozzi are scheduled to appear in court on May 22.
Briere later provided a statement to ESPN in which he said he was “deeply sorry” for his behavior, adding that “there is no excuse for my actions.”
Sydney Benes, who was identified as the owner of the wheelchair, filed a complaint. In her complaint, Benes claimed that the fall down the stairs damaged the left brake handle of her wheelchair, broke the plastic trim on the right armrest, bent a rear handle and caused the wheels to drag as she moved forward. Benes said the wheelchair cost $2,000 when it was purchased a year earlier. Days after the incident, Mercyhurst said Briere, Carrozzi and the third person in the video were all student-athletes and all were suspended.
Mercyhurst, a school from Erie, Pennsylvania, and a member of the Division I Atlantic Hockey Association, also said in its statement posted Monday on Twitter that it would not provide further comment.
Briere, 23, just completed his third season at Mercyhurst, appearing in 30 games. His father, 45, played 17 seasons in the NHL.
Following the incident, Daniel Briere released a statement saying: “I was shocked to see Carson’s actions in the video shared on social media yesterday. They are inexcusable and go completely against our family values of treating people with respect. Carson is very sorry and accepts full responsibility for his behavior.”