Police Arrest Man Who Allegedly Threw Sex Toy That Hit 12-Year-Old Girl at WNBA Game

Police in New York have arrested a man who is suspected of hitting a 12-year-old girl with a sex toy during a WNBA game earlier this month.

Charles Burgess, 32, of Dayton, Ohio, was arrested on Wednesday, Aug. 20, according to multiple news outlets including NBC News, The Athletic and USA Today.

Burgess faces 10 criminal charges, including second-degree attempted assault, a felony that carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison. The suspect is also facing charges including interference with a professional sporting event, reckless endangerment, harassment and obscenity. 

The Ohio man pleaded not guilty to all charges, according to The Athletic.

Authorities had been searching for Burgess since he was allegedly caught on surveillance video entering Barclays Arena on Aug. 5 before the New York Liberty-Dallas Wings game.

The suspect was pictured wearing black shorts, black sneakers and a black Beavis and Butt-Head T-shirt. He also wore a red baseball cap and appeared to have tattoos on both arms.

The suspect allegedly pulled the object from his pants and threw it during the game at approximately 8:45 p.m., striking “a 12-year-old female victim in the right leg,” police said at the time.

A father of six who is married and owns an auto shop, Burgess is “a casual fan” of the WNBA, his attorney told The Athletic.

“He does not regularly attend WNBA games, he is a casual fan, and he is not involved in any of these or prior incidents,” Paul D’Emilia told the outlet. “Mr. Burgess intends to vigorously fight these embellished and exaggerated charges. There seems to be video evidence that no one was actually struck by the thrown object, rendering any of the included assault charges unsustainable.”

Burgess’ arrest comes amid a spate of similar incidents that happened on the same night.

An 18-year-old was taken into custody on Aug. 5 at the Phoenix Mercury and Connecticut Suns game, halfway across the country in Phoenix.

Kaden Lopez was arrested during the matchup after police allege he threw a “green dildo” in front of him, hitting a man and his 9-year-old niece before Lopez then exited the stands. The alleged incident was captured on surveillance video.

And at a game between the Indiana Fever and the Los Angeles Sparks that same night, an object identified as a sex toy was thrown onto the court, and hit Fever star Sophie Cunningham.

“Oh, look out. Something just came onto the floor. An object just flew in as the free throw is being made. It looked like that hit a player, too,” a commentator said during the moment. A referee quickly halted the game to remove the object in a video shared on X.

Green sex toys were also thrown on WNBA courts during games on July 29 and Aug. 1.