3 arrested in shooting of former LU recruit

Media General News Service
Published: November 14, 2008

Three men have been arrested in the weekend shooting that critically wounded a former R.E. Lee High School football star, Harrisonburg police said Thursday.

Jahmaine Faqiri, 18; Gregory Baker, 20; and Demonds Parrish, 19, all of Ruckersville, have been charged with assault and battery by mob and gang participation, police said in a news release.

Faqiri also has been charged with brandishing a firearm.

Reginald “Shay” Nicholson, 19, a former Lee High tailback and Liberty University recruit, is in critical condition with a bullet lodged in his skull at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville.

He was shot in the head early Sunday on the 1300 block of Bradley Drive during a party in an off-campus housing complex near James Madison University in Harrisonburg.

Police also said additional arrests are pending.

Faqiri, Baker and Parrish are being held at Rockingham Regional Jail.

A search of court records from nine counties surrounding Ruckersville shows that Baker spent four days in jail on a petty larceny conviction in February in Albemarle County and he awaits a hearing on embezzlement charges.

Nicholson’s friends have scheduled a vigil and donation drive at 7 p.m.

Saturday in the parking lot of Memorial Stadium in Staunton to help pay for his hospital bills.

Friends have gathered flowers and cards and have continued to visit Nicholson’s family in the hospital.