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Cole Buckley, accused of throwing a water bottle at Kyrie Irving, ordered to stay away from TD Garden
Buckley is due back in court August for a pre-trial hearing.
Cole Buckley, a 21-year-old Celtics fan accused of throwing a water bottle at Kyrie Irving following Sunday’s playoff game at TD Garden, was arraigned on Wednesday morning on the charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He was told to stay away from TD Garden.
Buckley went before a judge at Boston Municipal Court, and a plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf after his attorney’s motion to postpone the arraignment was denied.
Buckley was arrested by Boston police on Sunday after being identified by multiple security personnel following the incident (which came at the conclusion of Game 4 of Boston’s first-round series against Brooklyn). According to a police report, the bottle he threw “grazed the head of Irving.” Buckley posted the required $500 bail on Sunday and was released.
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Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins discussed the matter after the arraignment.
“We believe that this individual engaged in an act of unprovoked workplace violence,” said Rollins. “If anyone showed up at any of your jobs and threw a water bottle at your head, hopefully you would call the police and we would prosecute that person. That’s what happened here. This might be a playoff game for us as fans. Kyrie Irving was at work.”
Buckley is due back in court on Aug. 5 for a pre-trial hearing.
He is “subject to a lifetime ban from TD Garden,” according to a statement the arena released afterward.
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“It is not lost on me that he chose to do this in a sport that is overwhelmingly Black men,” said Rollins. “We are not going to allow this trend to continue. Period. End of story. We have not charged him with a race-based hate crime but you don’t get to behave this way.”
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