A security guard "could have killed" a football fan with a chokehold during last Thursday's game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Carolina Panthers, according to a fan who recorded video of the incident.
John Hines, a Panthers fan who traveled to AT&T Stadium for the game, said he was seated behind John Small, another Panthers fan who filed an assault report with police following the encounter with a stadium security guard.
"Immediately I got my phone out and I started videoing it," Hines said.
Hines said he saw the security guard grabbing Small around the neck.
Hines said nothing happened before the incident.
"Everything was fine and toward the end of the game, I don't know who complained, but somebody complained about this guy who was doing nothing but cheering against, you know, Dallas," Hines said.
In an earlier interview, Small said he did nothing to deserve such treatment.
"I didn't do anything – what I felt would be (a reason) to be thrown out of the game and much less get choked out for anything," Small said.
Hines backed up Small's account and said Small seemed to be cooperating with the security guards.
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"Security went down to ask him to leave," Hines said. "He took their orders and he was with his mother, so he let his mother walk out first."
That's when Hines said things really got ugly.
"The security guard pushed (Small) in the back," Hines said. "And as they went up a few more steps, after he got pushed in the back, I guess (Small) turned around and said, 'What are you doing' or whatever. Then he choke-holds him."
Small and Hines are both Panthers fans, but Small said the two men don't know each other.
Hines said he otherwise had a positive experience in Texas.
"Actually, to be honest with you, I've never been treated as well as we were in Dallas," Hines said.
But he said he's still bothered by what he saw.
"I couldn't believe it," Hines said. "He could have hurt John Small. There's no doubt. He could have killed him."
