SURRY COUNTY, N.C. — A Mount Airy man will spend the rest of his life behind bars after a jury found him guilty in a suspected road rage incident where 2 children were shot.
On February 26th, a jury found Byron Green from Mount Airy guilty of two counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury with intent to kill, and one count of discharging a firearm into an occupied property causing serious bodily injury.
Green was sentenced to a minimum of 78 years to a maximum of 98 years in prison.
The incident happened in April of 2019 in the Flat Rock community. Evidence presented during the trial showed that the incident started on Eleanor Avenue where Craig Sheff, 40, of Mount Airy, was driving his car. There he had a chance encounter with Bryon Green.
Sheff and his girlfriend, Tori Dunning, had been out buying Easter presents for his two kids. They had just picked the kids up from Sheff’s mother’s house on Eleanor Avenue. Green was in a grey Ford Escape and used it to block the road in front of Sheff. Sheff told Green to move his vehicle and added that he had his children with him, believing that would help to de-escalate the situation. It appeared to work, as Green backed his vehicle into a driveway and allowed Sheff to proceed on.
As Sheff drove past, Green stepped out of his car, pulled out a gun and fired several shots. Green then jumped back into his car and pursued Sheff.
Green caught Sheff on East Pine Street outside of Mount Airy and he maneuvered his vehicle into the opposite lane against oncoming traffic, pulling beside of Sheff’s Nissan Sentra. As he pulled alongside the car, Green shot into the back of the car. The bullet shattered the glass, hitting Sheff’s young daughter in the face. The bullet then hit the face of Sheff’s young son, before lodging in the door of the car.
Sheff drove his critically injured children straight to Northern Regional Hospital in Mount Airy. Due to the severity of their injuries, the children were immediately transported for emergency care to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston Salem.
The investigation by the Surry County Sheriff’s Office revealed that Sheff and his family did nothing to instigate this incident with Green. It was merely a chance encounter on the roadway that permanently altered the course of the lives of his young children and their family. Evidence was found and shown during the trial that Green was upset with another individual, and Green was seeking that other individual when he ran into Sheff’s family that afternoon.
The children were later released from Baptist hospital and were present in the courtroom to hear the verdict and sentencing of Green.