Judge grants dismissal without prejudice as police investigation continues
Ohio prosecutors on Friday dropped all charges against Eljay Crisp-Carr, the 20-year-old who spent about five months in jail after his arrest in the June 6 mass shooting at Toledo’s Old West End festival that wounded 12 people.
During a Friday hearing before Judge Lori Olender of the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas, prosecutors asked the court to dismiss the charges against Crisp-Carr — more than 50 felony counts, including 25 of attempted murder. The court granted the request, and Crisp-Carr was released.
The Lucas County prosecutor’s office said in a statement Friday morning that it asked for the dismissal because of new and developing evidence. “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 office said. “In September 2026, the Lucas county prosecutor’s office informed Mr Crisp-Carr’s attorney of discovery that may support his defense.”
A dismissal without prejudice means charges can be refiled if necessary. The office also acknowledged in the statement that it had found evidence apparently supporting Crisp-Carr’s defense.
The investigation into the shooting remains open. “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.”
According to the local news outlet WTVG, attorneys for Crisp-Carr said he was not even at the festival when the shooting occurred, and that they had video and cellphone evidence supporting his alibi.
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.
Speaking with WTVG after the charges were dropped, Crisp-Carr said: “God is good.” He said he had always known he was innocent and believed authorities had mistaken him for someone else. Asked whether the mistaken identification came from photographs, Crisp-Carr said: “Yes, sir. Just picking with me.” He said he had tried 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.”
His mother, April Carr, told 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.
The June 6 shooting erupted when a fight between rival groups apparently escalated into two people shooting at each other, although neither was among the wounded.
Hundreds of people were attending the annual festival, held 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, more than 385 mass shootings had taken place in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonpartisan resource that defines such cases as those in which four or more victims are wounded or killed. The United States perennially has had high rates of mass shootings, prompting many to call on the federal government to implement more substantial gun control. Congress has not implemented such measures.