Cary Pride event assault sparks calls for tougher charges
Cary police charged Justin Batchelor, 25, after an alleged assault at Downtown Cary Park’s Pride market, igniting calls to treat it as a hate case.
Cary police charged Justin Batchelor, 25, with misdemeanor simple assault after an alleged attack at the Alphabet Soup Pride Market at Downtown Cary Park on June 13. He was issued a citation, not taken into custody, and court records show a disposition hearing is set for Aug. 13.
The assault unfolded during a daylong Pride gathering that brought hundreds of people to downtown Cary. Pride Month 2026 ran from June 1 through June 30, and the Town of Cary scheduled Pride in the Park for June 13 from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Downtown Cary Park. The schedule included themed crafts from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., a Pride Night Market from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., and a silent disco.
The Night Market Company’s Alphabet Soup Pride Market was its third annual Pride market and took place June 13 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Downtown Cary Park. Event listings put the market at nearly 50 vendors, food trucks, prepared-food vendors, local performers and free admission, drawing a large crowd from across the Triangle.
Organizers said a shirtless man carrying an American flag on a metal flagpole moved through the crowd in a disruptive way and was asked to put on a shirt before re-entering the event. Buxton later showed a swollen eye in an online video and said she had a black eye. She has said the incident left her shaken enough that routine errands have felt difficult since then.
State law on ethnic intimidation, under G.S. 14-401.14, covers assaults, property damage or threats driven by race, color, religion, nationality or country of origin. It does not specifically include sexual orientation or gender identity. Federal law does. The U.S. Department of Justice says federal hate-crime protections extend to sexual orientation and gender identity under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
North Carolina lawmakers have also considered widening state protections. Senate Bill 358 in 2025 would have added sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and disability to the state’s hate-crime law and increased penalties for bias-motivated offenses.
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