Ohio prosecutors on Friday dropped charges against a man arrested in connection with the 6 June shooting at Toledo’s Old West End festival that injured 12 people.
Eljay Crisp-Carr, 20, had faced more than 50 felony charges stemming from the shooting, including 25 counts of attempted murder. He was released after spending about five months behind bars.
But during a hearing Friday before the judge Lori Olender of the Lucas county court of common pleas, prosecutors requested that the charges against Crisp-Carr be dismissed.
His mother, April Carr, told news outlet WKYC she was “ecstatic” about the outcome.
“I’m beyond excited because what mother wants their child to be broadcast across the world for something they didn’t do?” she said.
Crisp-Carr’s defense team believes another person involved in the shooting remains at large.
“Now we’re still concerned that there is still somebody out here who actually did do the shooting, and as far as we’re concerned, that guy might be still out here still shooting,” defense attorney Alex Bodiford told WKYC.
The local news outlet WTVG reported that attorneys for Crisp-Carr had said he was not even at the festival when the shooting occurred. Lawyers for Crisp-Carr said they had video and cellphone evidence that supported his alibi, according to WTVG.
The Lucas county prosecutor’s office issued a statement to the media Friday morning explaining its decision, noting the dismissal was without prejudice – meaning charges can be refiled if necessary – though also acknowledging that it had found evidence apparently supporting Crisp-Carr’s defense.
“Due to new and developing evidence, the state of Ohio asked the court to dismiss the charges against Eljay Crisp-Carr without prejudice, and the court granted the request,” the prosecutor’s office said. “In September 2026, the Lucas county prosecutor’s office informed Mr Crisp-Carr’s attorney of discovery that may support his defense.”
The statement also addressed the status of the investigation, saying it was ongoing.
“The Toledo Police Department continues its investigation,” the statement said. “Both the department and our office remain committed to following the evidence and getting it right, just as we are in every case. As we said after the shooting in June, we will try this case in a courtroom, not in a court of public opinion.”
Speaking with WTVG after the charges against him were dropped, Crisp-Carr said: “God is good.”
He maintained that he had always known he was innocent and believed authorities had mistaken him for someone else.
When asked whether he believed the mistaken identification came from photographs, Crisp-Carr responded: “Yes, sir. Just picking with me.”
He also said he had attempted to explain to authorities that he was not the individual shown in the photograph. “They told me I was a monster,” Crisp-Carr said. “They just incriminated me.”
The Old West End festival mass shooting erupted when a fight between rival groups apparently escalated into two people shooting at each other, although they were not among the wounded.
Hundreds of people were attending the annual festival in a historic district of Toledo, a city on the western edge of Lake Erie. Organizers canceled the event’s second day because of the shooting.
As of Friday, there had been more than 385 mass shootings in the US so far for the year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonpartisan resource which defines such cases as those in which four or more victims are wounded or killed.
The US perennially has had high rates of mass shootings, prompting many to call on the federal government to implement more substantial gun control. But Congress has not implemented such measures.
