East Coast Hockey League suspends player indefinitely after alleged racist gesture toward Black opponent

By Jacob Lev, CNN

Updated 0923 GMT (1723 HKT) January 24, 2022

East Coast Hockey League player Jacob Panetta posted an apology video on social media after he was accused of making a racial gesture at another player.

(CNN)The East Coast Hockey League suspended Jacksonville Icemen defenseman Jacob Panetta indefinitely after he allegedly made a racist gesture toward South Carolina Stingrays defenseman Jordan Subban during Saturday's game, the league announced.

A hearing is to take place between the league and the Professional Hockey Players' Association. In a statement Sunday, Icemen CEO Andy Kaufmann said the team will be releasing Panetta effective immediately.«On behalf of the entire Icemen organization, we apologize to any one who was offended and look forward to beginning the process of healing together as one,» the statement said.The alleged gesture took place during overtime and resulted in a fight. Afterward, the Icemen posted on Twitter, «Overtime began with a rough fight resulting in multiple penalties on both sides.»Subban, who is Black, responded to that tweet and said that Panetta had make monkey gestures at him: «More like @JPanetta12 was too much of a coward to fight me and as soon 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. There fixed it.»Read MoreCNN has seen video of the fight but is unable to verify Subban's allegation.Panetta posted a video apology for the incident to his Twitter account Sunday evening, but said he did not intend his gesture to have any racial implication. «I did a tough guy, bodybuilder-like gesture towards him,» Panetta said, adding he's made the same gesture during previous