Crime & Safety

Police: Soccer Referee Assaulted By Two Players

The players were upset over a call and punched the referee in the back of the head before fleeing in a white Mercedes, according to Clearwater Police.

Update, July 23: The individuals believed to be involved in Sunday's attack on a soccer referee were misidentified after false names were provided to the authorities, Clearwater Police said Sunday night.

Timothy Kerr, 31, and Dale Lewis, 33, are being sought by police after they allegedly assaulted a referee over a call during a club soccer game at Joe DiMaggio Fields.

Authorities had been originally looking for two men named Ramone Mitchell and Omar Anderson in a white Mercedes. The soccer league's rules require players to show an ID card, police said, but because the suspects provided false league cards, the league and teammates had inaccurate names for the players.

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"At one point in the search for the suspects, police pulled over a white Mercedes but the names on the identifications given to police did not match the names of the two suspects," City of Clearwater spokesperson Joelle Castelli wrote in a media release. "The suspects were released."

 

Find out what's happening in Clearwaterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Earlier:

Clearwater Police are searching for two soccer players who they say assaulted a referee after they became angry over a call during a game at Joe Dimaggio Fields.

Ramone Mitchell and Omar Anderson are accused of punching the referee in the back of the head. 

"The referee fell to the ground and received serious, but non life-threatening, injuries to his shoulder," a spokesperson for the City of Clearwater wrote in a media release. The referee was taken to a local hospital.

The two players fled in a white Mercedes, the spokesperson said. A further description of the suspects was not immediately available.

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