'It doesn't make me feel safe': Men say they were randomly attacked in uptown

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two men are recovering from injuries after they said they were attacked at an intersection in uptown Charlotte over the weekend.

Alex Hunter told Channel 9 he and his boyfriend, Matthew Beck, were riding in a limo they own early Sunday morning after a night out. Hunter said the two were stopped at a red light at North Davidson and Trade streets when two men approached the vehicle and asked for a ride.

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"I said, 'No, we've got to go,' and the light turned green and that's when he snatched my glasses off of my face," Hunter recalled.

Hunter said he and Beck got out of the limo to retrieve his glasses and were attacked by the other two men.

"It lasted about a minute and a half. It felt like forever," Hunter said. "One of them had me in a headlock and my jacket was over my face, so I couldn't see anything that was going on."

First responders arrived and immediately began to treat Beck. According to a GoFundMe for his medical bills, Beck sustained lacerations to the back of the head, multiple broken bones and fractures in his face, including his nose, cheekbones and jaw.

Hunter suffered a broken hand and several bruises.

(Matthew Beck)

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers arrested and charged Nolan Lynch with simple assault.

"When you go to the hospital, and they tell you they can't pinpoint one thing that's broken because so many things are broken, and police officers told me that's a simple assault, that's not OK," Hunter said. "That's not simple assault. This man has a broken face. Weeks and months of recovery, and thousands of dollars in hospital bills."

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According to CMPD, no one else has been charged in the assault. Channel 9 requested the police report Wednesday, but CMPD said it wasn’t ready.

Channel 9 pulled crime data for the area within a half-mile radius of where the fight happened and found there have been 34 assaults there within the last four weeks.

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