The baseball fan who fell over a 21-foot wall and crashed onto the field in Pittsburgh on Wednesday has been identified as a 20-year-old former college football player.
As the Pittsburgh Pirates faced the Chicago Cubs, the fan, who appeared to be shirtless, fell from atop the wall in right field – known by fans as the ‘Clemente Wall’.
They were then tended to by medical personnel before being rushed to a nearby hospital, with Pittsburgh Police treating the incident as ‘accidental in nature’. As of 6:30pm, they are still believed to be in critical condition.
According to TribLive, the fan in question was Kavan Markwood – who played as a linebacker for the Wheeling University Cardinals.
A spokesperson for the South Allegheny School District, where Markwood played high school football, confirmed it is him currently fighting for his life at a hospital in Pittsburgh after the horror fall.
‘Everyone at South Allegheny would say he is a hard-working, highly resilient young man,’ the district rep, Laura Thomson, is quoted as saying. ‘He’s a fighter. He’s going to need that resiliency now.’
Thomson added: ‘He’s touched a lot of lives at South Allegheny. We’re a small community. He’s a household name here. Everyone knows him.
‘He has the prayers and the support of the South Allegheny community.’
Pirates owner Bob Nutting released a heartfelt statement of his own on Thursday as Markwood continues to recover in hospital, despite not providing an update on the latter’s condition.
Nutting’s statement read with an incredibly somber tone, despite there being no recent updates on the fan’s current state or condition.
‘We are all deeply saddened and truly heartbroken after the terrible accident that occurred last night,’ it began.
‘It was one of the most difficult moments many of us have ever experienced. We are devastated.
‘Pirates baseball is a community, and our fans are like family. In times like these, we must come together, support one another, and keep him and his loved ones in our prayers.
‘We also want to thank and appreciate the efforts of the first responders who rushed to his attention and provided him with compassionate care.’
According to Wheeling University’s athletics page, Markwood played for the Cardinals in 2023. He previously spent time at Walsh University.
One of his former Cardinals coaches told TMZ Sports that he left the program for work in 2024, but they were hopeful he would return later this year.
‘He was a very good young man’ Zac Bruney said.
Video posted to social media shows him falling over the Clemente Wall before plummeting onto the warning track.
Markwood flipped while in the air before appearing to land on his head.
Following the scary fall, medics rushed over with a stretcher as he laid on the ground. He then received medical attention for about five minutes.
Photos showed that another fan appeared to follow him onto the field afterward, deliberately hopping over the wall from the first row.
Pirates icon Andrew McCutchen could be seen with his head in his hands in the immediate aftermath of the incident, and he also held a cross that hung from his neck.
Players from both teams could also be seen praying.
The game ultimately resumed after Markwood was carted off of the field and brought to the hospital.
The Pirates addressed the moment in a statement after the game, writing that the fan received medical attention from both the Pirates and Cubs athletic training teams and other PNC Park personnel, who ‘reacted and responded immediately and administered care.
‘He was transported to Allegheny General Hospital. No further information is available at this time. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.’
