Anthony Gray

Anthony Eugene Gray Jr. was a fun and loving 21-year-old Black man from Dayton, Ohio, who enjoyed spending time with his family, especially his parents and his young daughter, Aniya. His mother, Felica Hardy, later said that her son would have been a great father. "He would have helped you. He would have been there for you. He could have protected her," she said of what she wanted his daughter to know.

On the night of March 27, 2021, an argument broke out inside a car parked at a BP gas station on Wilmington Pike in Kettering. Anthony was in the driver's seat. At around 11 p.m., a passenger in the back seat, 21-year-old Ja'Leel Raymon Brooks, got out of the vehicle. He then fired a handgun multiple times through the driver's side window at close range. Anthony was struck and died at the scene.

A second passenger, 22-year-old Demarque Young, was also shot in the leg but survived his injuries. By chance, Kettering police officers were inside the BP station when the shooting occurred just outside. Dashcam video from a police car captured the incident. After the shooting, Brooks dropped his weapon and surrendered to the officers who rushed out to the scene.

Police said Brooks and Anthony were friends, though Anthony’s mother later stated she had warned her son that Brooks was not his friend. Brooks, from Trotwood, was arrested and charged with two counts of murder and four counts of felonious assault. In April 2021, a Montgomery County grand jury indicted him on those charges.

The case concluded in court later that year. In November 2021, Ja'Leel Brooks was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Anthony Gray Jr.