RCSO: Weekend Shooting Death was Self-Defense

Ira Green's shooting death on Saturday was ruled self-defense. The mugshot shown here is from a 2019 arrest for pointing and presenting a firearm.

Date: May 24, 2021

Richmond County’s latest homicide was justified, according to authorities.

Authorities say the man who was killed, 60-year-old Ira Green of Blythe, had pointed a firearm at several people on the 2300 block of Cougar Drive on Saturday night.  When he did that, 22-year-old Christopher Hayes of Augusta, shot and killed him.

“No charges are being made at this time, as it was determined Hayes was acting in self-defense,” sheriff’s Sgt. William McCarty said in a press release. “No one else was injured during the incident.”

Ira Green (Contributed photo)

Green’s daughter said her father was a musician who leaves behind his daughter, wife, step-daughter and stepson.

According to court records, Green has a history of felony arrests and convictions, including armed robbery, burglary, carrying a concealed weapon, marijuana possession and fleeing police.

More importantly, Green has multiple arrests for pointing a firearm at another person. In a firearm arrest from December 2019, the actual crime dated back to 2006 when he came into an Aiken County bar and pulled out a gun, telling the owner, “Do you know why I came in here?” But the owner drew his own pistol and “escorted the subject out of the bar.”

The bar was located on Augusta Road in Gloverville. “Subject told victim someone had hired him to kill him,” a report says.

Green pleaded guilty in that case and was released after getting credit for 81 days spent in jail awaiting trial.

Greg Rickabaugh is the Jail Report Contributor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at greg.rickabaugh@theaugustapress.com.

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The Author

Greg Rickabaugh is an award-winning crime reporter in the Augusta-Aiken area with experience writing for The Augusta Chronicle and serving as publisher of The Jail Report. He also owns AugustaCrime.com. Rickabaugh is a 1994 graduate of the University of South Carolina and has appeared on several crime documentaries on the Investigation Discovery channel. He is married with two daughters.

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