By BOB HIGH

Fifty-five-year-old Levern Kelly was very upset Thursday night when he discovered the man hit in the back of the head with a .22-rifle bullet was his good friend and not his intended target, authorities reported.

James Ervin Dixon, 41, of Yam Lane, Tabor City, died in the driveway of Kelly’s residence at 10:27 p.m. after being struck with the bullet Kelly told investigators he fired from a distance of about 100 feet.

“I didn’t mean to shoot him. I meant to shoot the other guy,” Kelly told Sheriff’s Deputy Jeff Cully, the first officer to arrive at the scene after Kelly notified 9-1-1 of the shooting.

“He was devastated, very upset about what happened. He (Kelly) was very cooperative and voluntarily turned himself in to us Friday afternoon,” Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. David Nobles reported.

Kelly is charged with second-degree murder and was held under $50,000 bond.

Cully’s report of the incident noted that Kelly, Dixon and the third man – his name not released by authorities – were inside Kelly’s home playing cards and an argument began about Kelly being owed some money.

Cully noted that Ida Bell Washington, who was also in the home, went outside to talk to Kelly after Cully arrived and the suspect told her, “He (his intended target) pushed me. If I have to go to jail, I have to go to jail.”

The report showed Kelly was on his porch when he fired the rifle shot in the dim light. The rifle was recovered from a rear bedroom where it was leaning against the headboard of a bed.

It was Columbus County’s second homicide this year. Mickey Ray Hayes, 59, of Peanut Worley Road, Cerro Gordo, was killed by a shotgun blast in his home on Jan. 14. Bryon Leneau Hooks, 19, of Cherry Grove Road, Cerro Gordo, is charged in Hayes’ murder.