A firefighter has been charged with assault and banned from Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., after a video went viral of him getting into a physical altercation with a stadium employee.
Christopher Sullivan, who was already on paid administrative leave from his job with the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, was charged with simple assault after shouting obscenities at ballpark ushers and refusing to exit a stadium section that he did not have tickets for, according to police reports. Sullivan is then seen punching an usher after the employee attempted to push him out, prompting officers from the Metropolitan Police Department to intervene.
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Sullivan had tried to enter the lower section near the Atlanta Braves dugout to look for a friend who was sitting there, he told local news outlet WUSA9. While there, Sullivan began heckling a Braves player, prompting ballpark workers to ask him to leave.
“For the record, the Nationals Park employee who’s being reported as the victim is called a guest service representative (a fancier name for an usher), and I can assure you it’s not in his job description to place his hands or body on any fans,” Sullivan told the outlet.
The district’s fire department confirmed Sullivan is going to remain on administrative leave pending the results of a separate investigation into his workplace conduct filed before Sullivan was arrested. It’s not clear why Sullivan is under investigation, but sources told NBC Washington it was because of threats he had made to superiors and others in the department.
“The actions witnessed in the video are absolutely unacceptable. Our department was notified on September 27, 2022, that an employee of our agency had been arrested and charged with simple assault by Metropolitan Police,” the agency said in a statement. “Prior to this incident, the individual was on administrative leave with pay, pending the outcome of an internal personnel process. He will remain on leave as our internal investigation into this matter continues.”
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Sullivan had been previously terminated from his position as a firefighter but was later reinstated in 2013 when Kenneth Ellerbe was appointed as the fire chief.
In addition to his criminal charges, Sullivan has also been banned from Nationals Park for five years, according to the stadium.
