Why We Carry: Two Children Shot In The Face While In The Car With Their Father During Unprovoked Attack

You literally never know what is going to happen each day you wake up, and the father in this story certainly wasn’t thinking that his children would both be shot as they sat in the backseat of his car.

What started the incident in the first place, you ask? It was literally a chance encounter that this father and children had with the convicted man. That man was actually having problems with another person, but ran into this family instead.

Read the full details in the press release below.

This is reason #2,844,221 that we carry.

Press Release
from
Sheriff Steve C. Hiatt

A jury trial this week reached its conclusion and a Mount Airy man will spend the rest of his life behind bars as a result.

On February 26, 2020 Byron Donnell Green, 42, of Mount Airy, was found guilty by a jury in Surry County Superior Court of multiple felony charges. Those charges were 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 by Superior Court Judge Angela Puckett after receiving the verdict.

The case was presented by Assistant District Attorney’s Tim Watson and Quentin Harris. The jury returned the guilty verdicts on Wednesday afternoon after six days of seeing evidence and hearing from witnesses.

These convictions were a result of Green’s actions on April 20, 2019 in the Flat Rock community of Surry County. Detective John Hawks was assigned the lead detective with the Surry County Sheriff’s Office. Evidence presented during the trial showed that the incident started on Eleanor Avenue where Craig Sheff, 40, of Mount Airy, was driving his Nissan Sentra and had a chance encounter with Green.

It was the day before Easter. Sheff and his girlfriend, Tori Dunning had been out purchasing 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 vehicle, producing a handgun and firing several shots towards the passing vehicle. 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 Sentra. As he pulled alongside the car, Green shot into the rear passenger area. The bullet shattered the rear window glass and entered the face of Sheff’s young daughter. The bullet then exited her face, and entered the face of Sheff’s young son, exiting through his neck before lodging into the opposite rear door panel of the car.

Green proceeded to pass vehicles in the opposite lane of travel to escape and 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 in fact 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.

Sheriff Steve C. Hiatt would like to thank the Mount Airy Police Department, staff of Northern Regional Hospital, staff of Wake Forest Baptist Hospital and the Surry County District Attorney’s Office for their teamwork and cooperation in this investigation.

​Byron Donnell Green