Patriots Fan Beaten to Death by Rival Fan at Gillette Stadium

What was meant to be a fun foot­ball game turned fatal after a Dol­phins sup­port­er vicious­ly assault­ed a New Eng­land Patri­ots fan. Accord­ing to eye­wit­ness­es, 53-year-old Dale Mooney was bru­tal­ly punched in the face with­out provo­ca­tion by the aggres­sive Mia­mi fan.

Spec­ta­tor Joey Kil­martin watched in hor­ror as a sin­gle blow from the assailant knocked Mooney uncon­scious. EMTs rushed to admin­is­ter first aid but trag­i­cal­ly, the father of two nev­er regained con­scious­ness and was pro­nounced dead that night. Kil­martin also stat­ed Mooney had been involved in an ear­li­er phys­i­cal alter­ca­tion with oth­er hos­tile fans.

Mooney’s dev­as­tat­ed wife Lisa is left with unan­swered ques­tions around her hus­band’s sense­less death. The 30-year Patri­ots sea­son tick­et hold­er was sim­ply enjoy­ing the game with friends when tem­pers sud­den­ly flared. Now half a fam­i­ly is gone due to need­less vio­lence at the stadium.

Police have tak­en one sus­pect into cus­tody while launch­ing a homi­cide inves­ti­ga­tion. But no charges have yet been brought, leav­ing Mooney’s loved ones with lit­tle clo­sure around his trag­ic end. As the details emerge, many are left in dis­be­lief that a fun foot­ball out­ing devolved into fatal fist­fight over team rival­ry. Going for­ward, offi­cials may con­sid­er new secu­ri­ty mea­sures to deter bru­tal assaults in what should remain a safe envi­ron­ment for families.