Dave Birkett

Detroit Free Press

Through their own sleuthing — and with a lot of help from Twitter — the Lions said Thursday they identified the fan who used a laser pointer during Sunday's loss to the Buffalo Bills and banned him from all future events at Ford Field.

The suspect, a 17-year-old West Bloomfield resident according to the Associated Press, was charged with one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct, and the season-ticket holder who accompanied him to the game had his season tickets revoked for the rest of the year.

Lions President Tom Lewand declined to say if the two were father and son, but he said they were closely related.

"It was really a great effort by all of the parties involved," Lewand said. "Our security staff, our operations staff, Detroit police department, NFL security. Really a collaborative effort to identify the perpetrator and then file the charges and make sure that he was prosecuted to the fullest extent that the law allows."

Bills coach Doug Marrone complained to officials in the second half of Sunday's game that quarterback Kyle Orton and other Bills players were having a laser light pointed in their eyes from somewhere in the Ford Field crowd.

NFL security investigated during the game and could not identify a culprit, but several of the suspect's tweets, including one sent before the game that read, if "you see a green light on any of the bills players just laugh cause it's me," went viral Monday.

Lewand said a confluence of events led to identifying the suspect and added, "I certainly don't think he did himself any favors by talking about it (on Twitter)."

"But that wasn't the sole issue for us," Lewand said.

A spokesperson for Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan did not return a phone call seeking comment, and no one responded to a voicemail left at the West Bloomfield home of the suspect.

Lewand said the suspect could face trespassing charges if he tries to return to Ford Field and insisted the organization has several nonspecific safeguards in place to prevent him from entering the stadium in the future.

"This is something in now 13 years it's been one incident," Lewand said. "It's something that we feel like it's a very serious incident, one that we've taken very seriously. We've dealt with it swiftly and with every weapon at our disposal, so to speak, and we certainly hope that the attention that we've paid to this will deter anybody who was thinking of doing this in the future. Now they understand the ramifications and certainly our security will be on guard looking for things like laser points."

The Lions (3-2) play the Minnesota Vikings on the road Sunday and return to Ford Field on Oct. 19 to host the New Orleans Saints.

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.