Murder, assault charges for ex-Dot man after Sunday shootings near Grove Hall

Ira Grayson

A New Hampshire man who is originally from Dorchester is facing murder and assault charges after he allegedly shot two men on Danube Street near Grove Hall on Sunday night, killing one. Police have yet to identify the murdered victim.

In responding to a Shot Spotter activation just after 8:30 p.m. they found a man suffering from an apparent gunshot wound at 14 Danube St. The victim was pronounced dead after he was transported to a Boston hospital.

A second shooting victim “from the incident self-applied to a Boston hospital and his injuries appear to be non-life threatening,” police reported.

Police say that the gunman is Ira Grayson, 35, currently living in Manchester, NH. He was arrested around 10 a.m. on Monday, three weeks before he was scheduled for a hearing in federal court in Manchester on whether he should be returned to federal prison for violating terms of his probation. 

That hearing was originally scheduled for March 15, but was continued until May 15 and then again until July 15. Probation and the US Attorney’s office for New Hampshire agreed to let Grayson remain free while awaiting the hearing.

The suspect has a long record of gun and domestic-violence arrests and convictions in Lynn and New Hampshire. In Sept. 2019, he was released on four years of probation after serving a 42-month federal sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm - a charge that came about after he and some buddies drove from Dorchester to a Manchester firing range in 2014 and shot off Uzis. He posted video to his Facebook page and members of the Boston Police gang unit spotted that.

As a convicted felon, he was not supposed to go anywhere near guns, even for what his attorney described as a “benign” thing, as “a form of entertainment, akin to “going to a carnival arcade.”

The first six months of his sentence were served concurrently with a sentence out of Lynn District Court on a domestic-violence charge. The alleged shoving incident was actually the second time Grayson had gotten into trouble while on probation for the federal gun charge. Last September, Manchester police arrested him for driving an ATV like a lunatic through the streets of the city, at one point right at a police officer in a cruiser, whom he allegedly flipped off. He was charged with riot, disobeying an officer, and OUI.

After that incident, the federal probation office recommended to a judge that he be allowed to remain free on “supervised release,” but that he be ordered to be periodically tested for alcohol for 60 days. A federal judge agreed.

On Jan. 9 of this year, however, Manchester police charged Grayson with domestic assault after the alleged face-shoving incident.  On Jan. 19, a federal probation officer in New Hampshire asked a federal judge to revoke Grayson’s probation and sentence him to additional time in federal prison for violating his probation.

At a hearing on Feb. 23, a magistrate judge initially set a hearing for March 15 on whether to revoke his probation. The court docket for his case does not explain the reason for the three delays.

•••

An early morning fire last Friday at a home at 15 Castlerock St. in Savin Hill went to three alarms and left six people displaced, according to the Boston Fire Department, which also reported that a cat died in the incident. The fire was reported just before 3 a.m. on June 18. Damage was estimated at $800,000.

•••

Police from three police districts descended on a Draper Street apartment last Tuesday afternoon (June 15) to execute a search warrant for alleged drug trafficking. Three men— ages 40, 42 and 55—were arrested and will be charged with possession with intent to distribute drugs. Police say that hauled out a quantity of Fentanyl, cocaine, and crack cocaine and $12,224 in US currency.


Subscribe to the Dorchester Reporter