A 42-year-old Texas man is facing federal charges after allegedly threatening to shoot up the Abilene Pride Parade as revenge for the recent assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
“fk their parade, I say we lock and load and pay them back for taking out Charlie Kirk,” Joshua Cole wrote in a September 18 message to a Facebook friend, according to an FBI probable cause affidavit reviewed by The Independent.
“… [C]ome on bro let’s go hunting fairies,” he wrote, the affidavit says.
Cole was arrested by the FBI a day later, telling agents that he “did not believe that the gay pride event should be allowed,” while claiming he didn’t actually intend to gun down parade participants, the affidavit states.
But “the threats were not conditional,” FBI Special Agent Sam Venuti wrote in the affidavit supporting the case against Cole. “The threats were specific. The threats were also specific to a particular set of victims: people participating in the gay Pride parade.”
Cole’s comments “were not mere idle or careless talk, exaggeration, or something said in only a joking manner,” and any “reasonable person would experience apprehension of violence based on Cole’s statements,” according to the affidavit, which was attached to a criminal complaint filed in North Texas federal court on September 19.
Cole attended a brief court appearance Thursday and was ordered to remain jailed before trial.
The Independent has requested comment from the Department of Justice, the FBI, and Cole’s attorney.
Abilene’s fourth annual Pride Parade & Festival took place September 20 and featured vendors, live music, family activities, and drag shows. Extra security was on hand.
“Everyone wants to feel recognized and loved and feel like they belong somewhere,” Abilene Pride Alliance board member Nick Ellis told local ABC affiliate KTXS prior to the event, which went off without a hitch. “And you can’t do that without creating those spaces, for people to be able to have those opportunities.”
Two days before the parade, Cole replied to a Facebook post in which an acquaintance complained about a “no guns” policy instituted by the organizers.
“They don’t want anyone showing up and taking them out like they wanna do everyone else,” Cole replied, according to screenshots of his Facebook comments included in the affidavit. “Maybe we should protest lol.”
When another poster wrote a message snidely wishing “those they/thems” a “good parade,” Cole allegedly pounced.
“Fk their parade i say we lock and load and pay them back for taking out Charlie Kirk,” Cole replied, according to the affidavit. “[T]heres only like 30 of em we can send a clear message to the rest of them. [C]ome on bro lets go hunting fairies.”
.png)
Cole’s employer said he had “just” quit his job after a year and “stormed out of the facility in anger,” according to Venuti, who tried to interview Cole at his workplace the day the Facebook comments were written.
Colleagues described Cole as a “hot head,” according to the affidavit.
On September 19, Abilene Police Department officers stopped Cole at a traffic stop where Venuti was present, the affidavit says.
“I told Cole that I wanted to talk to him,” Venuti wrote in the affidavit. “Cole asked, ‘about what?’ or words to that effect. I stated that I wanted to talk to him about his ‘online activity.’ Cole then sighed and his body posture indicated that Cole knew the reason for our discussion. He did not appear surprised,” Venuti wrote.
Cole admitted that he operated the Facebook account behind the comments, the affidavit states.
Kirk, 31, was fatally shot September 10 while speaking at an outdoor event at Utah Valley University. The suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, is accused of taking aim at Kirk from a rooftop some 200 yards away, and leading police on a 34-hour manhunt after fleeing the scene.
Robinson reportedly confessed to his alleged roommate and partner, who is transgender, before his father – a retired deputy sheriff – convinced him to turn himself in to police.
No available evidence has emerged to suggest Robinson was embroiled in a wider plot to kill Kirk, although President Donald Trump and his supporters immediately blamed the shooting, without factual basis, on “the radical left,” while revelations that Robinson was allegedly dating a trans woman have fueled anti-trans conspiracy theories.
The U.S. saw an explosion of threats to LGBT+ people across the country within the last year, with violent attacks accounting for more than 80 injuries and 10 deaths, according to an analysis from GLAAD.
Between May 2024 and May 2025, GLAAD recorded nearly 1,000 anti-LGBT+ incidents in 49 states; with more than half of all incidents targeting transgender and gender non-conforming people, marking a 14 percent rise from the previous year.
Attacks based on a victim’s sexual orientation made up 17.2 percent of all hate crimes in 2024, and 4 percent were based on gender identity, according to the Human Rights Campaign’s analysis of FBI data.
Last week, after Department of Justice officials weighed whether to strip trans Americans of their firearms, the Heritage Foundation, an influential right-wing think tank with close ties to the Trump administration, called on the FBI to treat “violent transgender ideology” as a new domestic terror threat.
“Violence committed against trans Americans is an epidemic. Undue violence committed by trans Americans is a lie — a lie that only begets more violence,” Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson told reporters this week.
If convicted, Cole faces up to five years in prison.
