Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Man seen ramming cars near Las Vegas school says he wasn’t trying to kill anyone

School crash

This image from a Facebook video shows a Ford Mustang about to ram another car outside Johnson Middle School, near Alta and Buffalo drives, Friday, Sept. 22, 2017.

Click to enlarge photo

Clay Green

Viral video that surfaced on social media last week shows Clay Green plowing his orange Ford Mustang over a sign and into two other vehicles as he chases three people onto the property of a west valley middle school.

Green attempted to explain his side of the story Monday from the Clark County Detention Center, saying he was merely trying to keep track of the three acquaintances, who he accused of throwing stones at his car in front of his neighboring residence, until Metro Police arrived.

“I wanted to make sure I didn’t lose them before the cops got there,” Green said. “I’m tired of Metro’s slow response time and it was time to take things into my own hands.”

Green, 24, faces six felony charges — two for attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon, two for battery with a deadly weapon and two for assault with a deadly weapon — after police say he chased after two women and a man pictured in the video in front of Walter Johnson Junior High School on Sept. 22. One of the women was pregnant.

Video of the incident shows Green crashing into two other vehicles as the victims dash in circles around them, and then toward the school to avoid being run over. But Green insisted Monday he was protecting himself from a siege of rocks thrown moments before the viral video was recorded that had cracked his windshield.

The incident stemmed from an earlier fight with his 20-year-old brother Cole, Green said, who had taken the car for a joyride while the elder Green was sleeping, stealing a $5 bill and a pack of cigarettes from the glove compartment.

“That thing goes 130 miles per hour,” Green said. “I definitely could have run all of them over if I wanted to.”

The bruise under Green’s right eye in his mugshot was a result of a school security guard and the victims forcibly removing him from the Mustang when it stalled just seconds after the second crash, and pinning him to the ground until police arrived, he said.

Police say the pregnant woman and man both suffered minor injuries to their legs, and the other woman may have broken her arm.

Green — whose extensive criminal record dating back to 2013 includes felony assault convictions, possession of a gun by a prohibited person and fleeing the state as a fugitive — said he will not plead guilty to the six felony charges against him, and has not asked for an attorney. He is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday morning.

“It’s a traffic offense,” he said. “I didn’t try to kill anybody.”

Court records show Green pleaded guilty on Sept. 12 to one count of battery with substantial bodily harm in a separate case, which carries a penalty of two to 15 years in prison. He will be sentenced in that case on Jan. 8.

Johnson Middle School is no stranger to high-profile criminal cases involving aggressive driving. On Valentine’s Day in 2015, Las Vegas teen Erich Nowsch followed Tammy Meyers and her daughter Kristal Meyers from a mother-daughter driving lesson at the middle school to their home around the block. When Tammy Meyers commissioned her son Brandon to again leave the home to find Nowsch, gunfire was exchanged, and Nowsch again followed the car back to their home, where he fatally shot Tammy Meyers. Nowsch pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and sentenced to 14 years to life in prison on Dec. 22.