The family of Kaseem Malik Ray has sued the Maryland Transit Administration, alleging that an unlocked and unmonitored Old Court Metro Station allowed Ray to wander onto the tracks in the middle of the night in April 2023, where he was struck and killed by a train. The lawsuit claims Ray survived the initial impact and lay at the scene long enough that a proper monitoring system could have gotten him rescued.
According to the lawsuit, Ray entered the Old Court Metro Station in Pikesville after hours on April 16, 2023, and tripped from the platform into the path of a moving train early that morning. As reported by WBFF, the station entrance was not locked, monitored, or secured at the time, and the complaint argues the MTA could have rescued Ray had the station been monitoring its tracks. The family is seeking compensation on behalf of Ray's two children.
Court filings described in the report lay out the physical path someone would have to take to reach the tracks: crossing a covered pedestrian bridge and passing through fare gates before descending to an island platform. The lawsuit alleges the MTA breached its duty of care by leaving those doors unlocked after closing hours with no security personnel present, according to News & Features.
Family Says Evidence Has Been Withheld for Years
Ray's family has said it still has not been able to review security footage from the station or an official incident report from the crash, despite repeated requests. Family attorney Mark Epstein told the Baltimore Sun that the MTA has withheld both the camera footage and the crash report for three years running, per the same outlet's reporting picked up by WBFF.
Epstein said the family is still trying to piece together exactly how Ray ended up on the tracks. The lawsuit states Ray lay at the crash scene for enough time that MTA staff could potentially have intervened, according to the complaint — a claim the family hopes the withheld footage and incident report could help confirm or clarify.
Case Bounced From Baltimore City to Baltimore County
The lawsuit was originally filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court in April 2026 before being transferred to Baltimore County Circuit Court on August 4, 2026, per News & Features. Epstein said the family plans to appeal that transfer in hopes of returning the case to Baltimore City, their preferred venue.
The suit seeks compensatory damages exceeding $75,000 across two counts, alleging both wrongful death and negligence. Any eventual payout, however, would be constrained by state law: under Section 12-104 of the Maryland Tort Claims Act, state liability for personal injury or wrongful death claims against agencies like the MTA is capped at $400,000 per claimant for a single incident, according to News & Features. The same law generally requires anyone suing a state agency to first deliver a written claim letter to the Maryland State Treasurer within a year of the incident, per the People's Law Library.
Old Court Station's Layout and History
Old Court Station sits at 4300 Old Court Road in Lochearn, near Pikesville, and is the second stop heading south from Owings Mills on the Metro SubwayLink. Per Wikipedia, the station has a single island platform serving two tracks and roughly 625 commuter parking spaces. The station opened in July 1987 during the subway system's Phase II expansion, and its evening hours were once shortened to 8 p.m. during 1993 budget cuts before midnight closing was restored in 2001, according to the same source.
The Metro SubwayLink runs 14 stations across 15.5 miles connecting Owings Mills in Baltimore County to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore City, carrying about 4.6 million riders in 2025, Wikipedia notes. Nationally, the Federal Transit Administration oversees rail transit safety rules and has worked with the MTA on pilot programs for trackside alert and worker protection technology, according to the Federal Register.
