A-10 source calls incident with St. Bonaventure videographer in headlock by UD Arena security guard a “misunderstanding” after footage goes viral

St. Bonaventure videographer Nathan DeSutter is put into a headlock by a UD Arena security member after Sunday’s A-10 Championship Final. The image, taken by UD student Griffin Quinn, has been widely circulated online. Photo courtesy of Griffin Quinn, Flyer News.

Peter Burtnett
Sports Editor

The University of Dayton hosted the Atlantic 10 Men’s Championship Final at UD Arena on Sunday, but the biggest story after the game on social media was a picture by a UD student, who is also the print editor of Flyer News.

In the picture captured by Griffin Quinn, a UD Arena security guard is pictured holding the videographer for St. Bonaventure in a headlock. The videographer, identified as Nathan DeSutter by The Buffalo News, had Tier 1 credentials and was part of the team travelling party, but the guards were told media members “must remain in their seats for postgame” to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Without much context originally, reactions to the picture spread rapidly, with most people questioning what was going on here and why the security guard had the videographer in a headlock. Through a thread of tweets, Quinn described the events from his point of view.

To provide more context, two videos emerged which showed the events unfold. The two sources are David Jablonski from Dayton Daily News, and Jeff Uveino from The Intrepid, St. Bonaventure’s online student newspaper.

The two videos have amassed around 500,000 views as of the original publishing of this article at 4 p.m. Monday. According to a tweet by Jablonski, the security guard told the St. Bonaventure videographer “five times” to stay off the court.

St. Bonaventure players and staff members cleared up the situation with the security guard, informing the guard that DeSutter was part of the athletic department and allowed to be on the court.

A source within the Atlantic 10 confirmed with Flyer News that the situation was a misunderstanding, and agreed the headlock was an escalation of events after the guard had told DeSutter to get off the court multiple times and the videographer proceeded to evade the guard while trying to do his job.

According to the source, the security guard is used to working First Four games and other tournaments with high security, and “everyone was doing their jobs.” DeSutter was capturing footage for the team and the security guard was keeping a person whom he thought to be unauthorized off the court.

The source said the events were an unfortunate understanding of the rules and how the rules should be applied.

The source also said all parties involved have moved on and consider the case to be closed after conversations between the A-10, Dayton, and St. Bonaventure. The source confirmed no charges have been pressed by DeSutter.

DeSutter could not be reached for comment.

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