Wake Forest man claims self-defense in shooting death

“So I went back and got my gun,” he said. “And came back up here. Next thing I knew he backed back and kicked the door open, broke all that, and said ‘I’ma get you.’ So I let him have it and I shot him.”

Ray, 89, said he shot and killed Mitchell, 47, Saturday evening in self-defense.

Investigators found Mitchell dead on the front porch of Ray’s Jordan Lane home.

Sitting on the front porch Sunday while friends and family repaired the broken door, Ray, a World War II veteran, said he was taken into custody but later released because he was defending himself.

Capt. James Stevens with the Wake County Sheriff’s Office would only say Sunday that there was no additional information and the investigation is ongoing.

Mitchell, who lived in a nearby property owned by Ray, was upset about a broken air conditioning unit, Ray said.

“He'd threatened to kill me two or three other times over the last 12 months,” he said. “So I wasn't taking any chances of him killing me after busting my door open and coming in on me.”

The two men had a history of arguing, said Ellen Newton, Ray’s employee and Mitchell’s ex-girlfriend.

“Calvin's had problems with him off and on, coming up here hollering and screaming at him about stuff,” she said.

Mitchell contacted Ray on Friday to complain about the air conditioning unit, Newton said. A repair man serviced the unit on Saturday, but Mitchell said it was still broken, Newton said. The repair man returned to Mitchell’s home but left after he and Mitchell got into an argument, Newton said.

Mitchell then went to Ray’s home, Newton said.

Scott Mitchell, Jeffrey Mitchell’s brother, said Sunday that Ray should be charged with a crime and that his brother should not have been killed for kicking in a door.

“He knew my brother would never lay a hand on him,” said Scott Mitchell, who added that his brother and Ray used to be friends. “My brother was a hot-headed person. All my brother wanted was to get that air conditioner fixed so he and his son didn't have to sleep in a hot house. My brother would never lay a hand on him ever. If there is one thing my brother loved more than anything it was his son. He'd never do anything to leave that boy in this world with just his mama.”