Graham man faces 24 charges after BB gun attack near Saxapahaw

A BB gun blast near a birthday gathering on Church Road turned a late-night call into 24 criminal charges for a Graham man, with deputies saying several people were shot at and a family party of about 40 was thrown into chaos. Alamance County deputies went to the 5900 block of Church Road near Saxapahaw at about 10:11 p.m. after a shots-fired report and identified Mickey Andrew Cox, 28, as the suspect.

The Alamance County Sheriff’s Office said Cox lived nearby and had a history of issues, a detail that now sits at the center of a case that deputies treated as more than a prank or neighborhood dispute. Cox was charged with 19 counts of misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon, two felony counts of assault on an individual with disability and three counts of misdemeanor injury to personal property.

WFMY News 2 reported deputies believed multiple people were shot with the BB gun. FOX8 WGHP reported that no serious injuries were reported, but members of the affected family said the incident broke up a birthday celebration and sent roughly 40 relatives, including children and two disabled family members, into confusion and fear.

The charging breakdown gives the case its weight. Nineteen assault counts suggest investigators believed the conduct reached multiple alleged victims, while the two felony counts tied to assault on an individual with disability raise the legal stakes even higher. The three property charges indicate deputies also believed damage was done beyond the people who were present.

Cox appeared in court Monday in handcuffs and told the judge he wanted to hire his own lawyer, according to FOX8. The judge set a $12,000 secured bond for the misdemeanor charges and no bond on the felony counts. Cox also asked to speak with his fiancée but was denied, and he is due back in court on June 29.

North Carolina law helps explain why deputies and prosecutors may be treating the allegations so seriously. State law makes assault with a deadly weapon a felony in certain circumstances, and another statute makes it a Class A1 misdemeanor to point any gun or pistol at another person, even if the weapon is unloaded. Appellate decisions in North Carolina also show that whether an object counts as a deadly weapon depends on the facts of the case.

Near Saxapahaw, where fast-growing rural neighborhoods and close-knit family gatherings often mix, this case has already become a measure of how quickly a dispute can spill into a public-safety crisis. For Alamance County, the question now is not whether a BB gun was used, but why deputies say that use put so many people in danger at once.