Towson Circle shooter Reginald Gray indicted on murder, assault charges

Less than two years before Towson University student Nasir Majied was fatally shot near Towson Circle in broad daylight, the man indicted on charges of murdering the 22-year-old had been imprisoned for attempted murder.

Court records show that Reginald Gray spent five years in federal prison, was legally prohibited from owning or using a gun, and threatened his son’s mother and maternal grandmother.

Baltimore County detectives say Gray, 33, shot and killed Majied last month in a road rage incident. Gray is accused of running a red light and cutting off the Towson undergraduate, prompting Majied to speed up and cut off Gray on York Road. Officials said that led Gray to fire into Majied’s gray Kia.

On Monday, a grand jury indicted Gray in Baltimore County Circuit Court on eight counts, including first-degree murder, assault and six firearms-related charges, according to court records.

If convicted, the Baltimore resident could spend the rest of his life in prison without parole.

Baltimore County District Public Defender James Dills confirmed his office was representing Gray but declined to comment further.

‘Very violent and aggressive’

Gray’s criminal history terrified the mother of his son, court records show.

Last year, she filed for custody of the child she shares with Gray. At that point, Gray had spent most of his 10-year-old son’s life in prison.

She told Baltimore County Circuit Judge Suzanne Farace that Gray had a “very violent past,” which concerned her so much that she requested the court shield her address from Gray. She said she did not feel safe around him and that he had called their son a homophobic slur during a November 2024 visit.

The woman’s mother, a pastor, testified in family court that when Gray’s son was 1, Gray showed up at her church uninvited and threw a brick at her car.

The woman filed a peace order against Gray after she said he kicked in her door in June 2017 and threatened to kill her and their son, according to court records.

The woman wrote in her petition that Gray pushed her at their son’s second birthday party, texted her pictures of guns, and said that if she didn’t give him access to their child, the toddler “wouldn’t have a mother or a father.”

Gray was arrested in Baltimore City on charges of attempted murder in February 2019, convicted and sentenced to prison in Cumberland, where he stayed until August 2024.

As a felon, Gray was prohibited from owning, using or carrying a gun.

Last year, Farace ordered that the woman have full custody of the child she shares with Gray, and Gray was limited to weekly dinners and weekend visits.

Shocking death

Court records show Majied was from Edison, New Jersey.

A friend who attended Morgan State University with Majied remembered him as quiet and easygoing.

That friend, Antonio Herbert, attended the Mass that the Rev. Mike Misulia celebrated in Majied’s honor in June at a chapel run by Towson University’s Newman Center — a hub for the secular campus’s Catholic ministry.

“There was never a case with guns involved or knives involved with him,” Herbert said at the time. “I don’t know what the heck happened that day.”

Majied had a history of erratic driving. In May, Baltimore County Police charged him with assault after he ran a stoplight on York Road and initially fled from the officer who tried to pull him over.

The undergraduate’s former basketball coach, Hanif Davis, based in New Jersey, wrote in a Facebook post last month that Majied was a “nice young man who was quiet and meant well and was going places.”

Davis declined to be interviewed but said he was devastated by Majied’s death.

Sophie Okere, a recent Towson University graduate who also went to the Mass held by Misulia, said Majied’s death made her question her safety.

“I used to think Towson was a safe space, but is it?” the 22-year-old said at the time, noting that she was the same age as Majied.

At a town hall in Towson earlier this month, Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough said he understands that the perception that crime is on the rise is pervasive, even if the data does not back it up.

“Perception is reality, right?” he said. “If we perceive that we’re unsafe and we feel unsafe, then that’s our reality. It’s our job to make you feel safe and create that environment, and we’re trying to do everything that we can.”

Gray’s next court date has not been scheduled.