An overzealous security guard at a Pittsburgh Pirates game punched a fan in the face then beat him with a belt, a recently filed lawsuit against the team says.
Patrick Egan sued the Pirates and Raymond Stroud last week in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, alleging injuries like a chipped tooth, concussion and facial trauma stemming from an incident at a May 4, 2025, game against the San Diego Padres.
It started after the game, when Egan and a woman he says was looking at her phone while walking collided with each other. She called him “fat boy” during the subsequent argument and called over Stroud.
Words continued. Egan says Stroud, who was much taller than he is, was spitting in his mouth.
“Plaintiff asked Mr. Stroud to stop spitting into his mouth,” the suit says. “Defendant Stroud punched Plaintiff in the throat and face multiple times, knocking Plaintiff’s eyeglasses from his face, and he punched Plaintiff in the back of his head as Plaintiff retreated.”
Egan says he spit the blood coming from his mouth at Stroud twice, leading to Stroud removing his belt and hitting him in the back and face with it. Egan was banned from PNC Park because he “provoked a PNC Park employee to engage in a physical altercation and further escalated the situation by spitting on the employee,” a letter from PNC Park’s executive vice president to Egan stated.
Attorney Craig Fishman took a shot at the Pirates’ lackluster recent history on the field, writing Egan’s pain and suffering might actually decrease as a result of being banned from games.
Stroud was suspended, and video of the incident caused headlines. Included in exhibits to the complaint is a picture of Egan in a bloodied Star Wars shirt, as the game was “Star Wars Day.”
The suit blames the Pirates for hiring Stroud despite a criminal record including theft of cable television services and public drunkenness. Media reports said Egan was harassing the woman he bumped into, but he says the Pirates knew those claims to be false because of surveillance footage.
“(T)he Pirates did not release the security videos to the public and did not release a statement that Plaintiff was not involved in the verbal altercation with the ‘female food and beverage employee’ and did not harass her,” the suit says.
“The Pittsburgh Pirates wanted to protect the team’s reputation, and ticket and merchandise sales, rather than have the truth of the matter come to light. While Plaintiff does not contend that this incident was a racial hate crime, upon information and belief, the Pirates’ response would have been much different had a White security guard belt whipped a Black ‘guest’ at PNC Park.”
