Did Raleigh mayor make little Rangers fan cry at Canes game? Baldwin, father disagree.
A New York Rangers fan says Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin made his daughter cry during the final playoff game between the Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes.
“Are you also proud of your behavior towards the 10-year-old girl who came to your city to root for her Rangers in game 7 tonight?” the father tweeted. “You berated her, against the urging of everyone around you, until she hysterically cried.”
Baldwin, a long-time Canes fan, says she did not yell at the girl or any Rangers fan at PNC Arena.
“People can say whatever they want now,” Baldwin said in an interview Wednesday. “And it doesn’t even have to be true. And people exploit that.”
The Hurricanes lost 6-2 to the New York Rangers in Game 7, ending the Canes’ season Monday night.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the team said it had no reports of any incidents involving Baldwin.
The News & Observer reached out to over a dozen people who claimed to have seen what happened, but many didn’t respond or declined to speak if their name were published.
‘Get out of here’
Jordan Rozany traveled from New Jersey with his 10-year-old daughter and his father to root for the Rangers.
“My dad’s been taking me to games since I was born,” Rozany told The N&O on Thursday. “Some of my best and clearest memories are when the Rangers won the (Stanley) Cup in ‘94. I was 10 years old. The same age my daughter is now.”
His daughter, Tessa, made a sign asking for a hockey stick with the intention to go hang out near the Rangers exit if they won the game.
Since the Rangers were up in the last period, they left their seats and moved to sit by where the players would leave the rink.
“This lady turns around and started screaming, ‘Get out of here. Go back to where you came from. I’m going to call the police,’ and I just ignored her because, you know, you’re on the road and hockey fans can be aggressive,” Rozany said.
They tried to ignore it, he said, but the woman got out of her seat and walked toward them and begin yelling at them.
“She seemed to be addressing my daughter, not even me,” Rozany said. “And I mean she’s just very demonstrative. She’s waving her hands, pointing her finger.”
He said he and other fans started telling her to stop.. At that point, his daughter started to cry, he said.
Some Canes fans offered their seats to them, Rozany said. “Next thing I know there’s security next to us” telling the woman they could stay in those seats, he said.
At that point, Rozany continued, someone behind them asked if they knew who the woman was.
“And they’re like, ‘That’s the mayor of Raleigh.’” Rozany said. “I was just in a state of shock because, again, it wouldn’t shock me if it was just a random fan. But then to hear that it’s like this elected official, like the highest office in that city. I was just like, did this really just happen?”
‘Monitor the situation’
Monday night, Baldwin was sitting in section 124, which is near the opposing team’s tunnel. Fans of the opposing team sometimes come into the area to try to get autographs before and after the games.
“We’re used to that,” Baldwin said. “What happened was, the other night when it appeared the game was over, Hurricanes fans started leaving early. And we had a number of Rangers fans kind of come down to the section while the game was still going on.
“It was, how shall I say this? They were enthusiastic,” Baldwin said. “There were obscenities being thrown around, lots of yelling and whatnot. So we had been surrounded by Rangers fans.”
More Canes fans left, including one woman who said she didn’t feel safe, Baldwin said.
The mayor said she told an usher there were several Rangers fans who didn’t have tickets for that section and asked the usher to “monitor the situation.”
“The usher came down and talked to several groups who claimed that Hurricanes fans had allowed them to sit in those seats,” she said. “And so they came over to me and said, ‘You know, the fans are saying that they were allowed to sit here.’ And I said, ‘Totally understand. There’s nothing you can do.’”
It escalated, she said, when a man started yelling and someone responded not to talk to the mayor like that.
“That’s when he started screaming, swearing whatnot and then accusing me of making a little girl cry,” Baldwin said. “And I’ll be honest, totally honest, I was in total disbelief. Because that was not the case at all. And like I said, it escalated the second he found out I was the mayor. And my husband finally said to me, ‘Listen, we have to leave, this is crazy. And feels dangerous.’”
The only time Baldwin said she spoke to Rozany and his daughter was when she tried to extend “an olive branch” and tell them they could sit in front of them or beside them.
“Was I at the game cheering on my team?” she said. “Yes. But I didn’t yell at any opposing people. I didn’t treat them disrespectfully. I simply asked an usher to come down and monitor the situation.”
In a follow-up message, Baldwin repeated that she did not yell, point her finger in the girl’s face or tell the family they couldn’t be in the section.
“Not true,” she said. “I went and got security. I did go over and say I was sorry she was upset and actually offered our friend’s seats in the front row, which were empty. But I did not do that.”
‘Streaming in tears’
Matthew Johnson sat in the same row as Baldwin.
When Canes fans started to leave in the third period, he said Baldwin and others started shouting for the fans to stay and support the team.
Johnson said he saw Rozany and his daughter try to sit in the section when a man yelled at them.
“And that’s when the mayor and a few of the other people around there started yelling at them to go back,” Johnson said.
“She was talking to the father. You know saying that ‘You shouldn’t be here’ or words to that effect,” he said. “She did go out and apologize at some point, especially when the girl was streaming in tears.”
Council member asks question
On Wednesday, City Council member David Cox sent an email to Baldwin, the rest of the City Council and some senior city staff members with screenshots of Rozany’s tweet.
“Can you explain posts on Twitter describing you yelling at a young girl until she was in tears?” Cox asked. As of Thursday night, Baldwin had not responded to him, he said.
Debate and reaction to what happened during the game has circulated on social media, including Twitter and Facebook.
Livable Raleigh, a group that organized a failed recall election of Baldwin, posted about the incident on its website, leading some to question whether the incident was politically motivated.
“No, absolutely not,” Rozany said. “I don’t even get involved with politics here. ... I’m from New York. I’ve been in Jersey for the last 20 years. It was my first time staying in North Carolina.”
Baldwin served on the Raleigh City Council from 2007 to 2017. After a two-year retirement, Baldwin ran and won her first term as the city’s mayor in 2019. She is seeking re-election.
The mayor also previously worked for the Carolina Hurricanes as director of corporate communications and executive director of the Kids ‘n Community Foundation.
This story was originally published June 3, 2022 at 8:19 AM.
