A professional soccer player en route to Atlanta for a game was attacked on a plane by someone who woke him up from a nap when he grabbed his neck on an Air Canada flight from Toronto, according to Channel 2 Action News.
According to reports, the attacker tried to use his headphone cord to choke the man, but someone stepped in to stop him.
According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., Ottawa Fury Football Club player Oliver Minatel, was flying in with his team from Toronto to play the Atlanta Silverbacks on Saturday.
Minatel told CBC he was sleep when he was attacked and others on board came to his aid.
The passenger sitting next to the attacker on the flight said the man repeatedly said “the soccer team was out to kill him,” Channel 2 reported.
Passenger Kevin Kerr said the man “was talking about how the soccer team was trying to kill him. I thought maybe he was a deranged fan or something.”
Kerr, of Toronto, was travelling to Atlanta on business. He said the man “kept saying these guys were after him. I thought maybe they got into some altercation in the waiting room,” the station reported. “I didn’t know he was hearing voices in his head.”
Kerr was one of the people who restrained the man after the attack.
FBI spokesman Stephen Emmett told CNN the attacker, whose identity was not released, was taken for medical/mental evaluation under the direction of the Atlanta police department. He said there are currently no federal charges pending but the facts of the matter are being relayed to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Atlanta.
The Fury-Silverbacks regular season game will go on as scheduled at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Atlanta Silverbacks Park.
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