BUFFALO, New York, March 28 -- A Russian man who allegedly threatened to shoot and stab Buffalo Sabres forward Alexander Mogilny unless the hockey player paid him $150,000, has been arrested and charged with attempted grand larceny.
Serey Pavlovski, who helped Mogilny defect to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1989, was arrested Friday night at the War Memorial Auditorium outside the Sabres locker room, Erie County detectives said Sunday. He was charged with second degree attempted grand larceny.
Mogilny sat out Buffalo's game Friday night, but played Sunday and scored a goal and added an assist in the Sabres' 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders.
Mogilny told police that Pavlovsky, 30, approached him in a restaurant in Amherst and said he had a gun and would shoot him in the back and stab him in the legs unless Mogilny agreed to give him $150, 000.
Viacheslav Fetisov, a New Jersey Devils defenseman, and Los Angeles Kings forward Alexander Zhitnik have both admitted to reporters that they and their families in Russia have received similar threats, and Pavlovski has been seen with Zhitnik this year when the Kings played in the New York area. But police said they did not believe Pavlovski was responsible.
'We think this is an isolated incident,' Erie County chief of detectives Gerald Mack said Sunday night. 'We do not think they (Zhitnik and Fetisov) are connected to this or that this is any protection gang operating. Both the team's and our feeling is that this is just a single incident, not part of a larger protection racket.'
Police begain surveillance of Mogilny's home in Amherst and set up a stakeout of the War Memorial Auditorium, and Friday night Pavlovsky, who lives in New York City, and Vycheslav Petechel, 37, of Brooklyn, also a Russian citizen, were both arrested there.
Petechel was turned over to U.S. Border Patrol agents after it was discovered that he had overstayed his vias by two years. Both men face trespassing charges for entering the Aud.
