An indefinite suspension is pending for a white hockey player who made monkey gestures at his Black opponent during a game.
The East Coast Hockey League stepped in Sunday (January 23), suspending Jacob Panetta after Jordan Subban, a Black hockey player and brother of longtime NHL defenseman P.K. Subban, accused him of making "monkey gestures" on the ice.
The incident took place Saturday (January 22) when, 23 seconds into overtime, Panetta makes a monkey-like pose while an official led Subban away. Subban skates back towards Panetta which led to multiple players involved in the commotion.
"They don't call the east coast league the jungle because my brother and the other black players are the monkeys!" P.K. Subban tweeted after the incident, posting video of the scene." P.K. tagged Panetta in the tweet, writing "you shouldn't be so quick to delete your Twitter or your Instagram account you will probably be able to play again ... that's what history says."
According to The Huffington Post, Panetta's suspension comes in the wake of another white player, Krystof Hrabik getting a 30-game suspension for making a racial gesture during a game earlier this month.
After the league announced Panetta's suspension, his team, the Jacksonville Icemen, announced they decided to cut him from their roster.
Jordan Subban called out Panetta directly, tweeting that he was "too much of a coward" to fight.
"As I began to turn my back he started making monkey gestures at me so I punched him in the face multiple times and he turtled like the coward he is," the tweet said.
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