Article: Boy Dies at Hockey Game Picking Up His Raffle Prize

Boy Dies at Hockey Game Picking Up His Raffle Prize

A 14-year-old boy from Scituate, Mass. died at a minor league hockey game between the Portland Pirates and the Providence Bruins at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence on Friday night. It was "Revival Night," an annual promotion by the team that attracts more than a thousand church congregants to the arena. The Providence Journal reports that that boy, a member of the Word of Life Fellowship Christian outreach program, stayed for the night's postgame festivities -- and that's when an unbelievable tragedy occurred:

The boy - who did not participate in the after-game competitions - won the raffle's grand prize, a Nintendo Wii game console, according to Lepore. "He came down from the stands to get his prize and he either tripped or fell or collapsed," Lepore said yesterday. The boy was taken by New England Ambulance to Hasbro Children's Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

The Journal doesn't offer a clear geography of where this fall took place, and none of the sources offer insight as to how his injuries could have ended up being fatal. The paper reports that the Providence Police Department is investigating the death pending results of an autopsy. The P-Bruins have released a statement, which indicates that the Wii was being awarded by The Word of Life and not the team, and the P-Bruins planned a moment of silence before Sunday's game.

The Dunkin' Donuts Center had just reopened earlier this month after being closed for six months during "phase two" of a three-phase, $80 million renovation. Lepore told The Journal in a Nov. 14 story that his arena was "the safest public building in the country" because of the advanced life-safety measures added during that renovation.