KHL player charged with attacking cops in restaurant
Say, how as your offseason? Spend a little time at the cabin? Kick back with some binge-watching on Netflix?
Get drunk and punch a police officer in the head at a restaurant?
That’s alleged how Artyom Lukoyanov spent his offseason.
The 24-year-old forward, who played the last two seasons with Kazan Ak-Bars in the KHL, was arrested on Sunday night along with Maxim Gruzdev of VHL team Neftyanik after an incident involving two cops at Almetyevsk, the republic of Tatarstan.
The police officers were called to the restaurant by staff who were concerned by Lukoyanov's aggressive behavior, the local police department told Lenta.ru.
The policemen found Lukoyanov "in a drunken state" and told him to leave, Interfax reported. Investigators said that Lukoyanov then punched one of the officers in the head, at which point Gruzdev appeared and attacked the second police officer, who fired two warning shots into the air.
Guess they weren’t sufficiently warned.
According to the Lenta.ru report, one of the officers suffered a neck injury and the other one had a concussion.
The players could face up to 10 years in prison, which would obviously bring them straight to unrestricted free agency.
UPDATE: Via SovSport, video of the incident:
