A 20-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with a shooting that wounded a dozen people at a Toledo street festival in early June, though authorities continue searching for a second gunman involved in the incident.
Eljay Crisp-Carr was taken into custody Thursday and faces 11 counts of felonious assault. According to a criminal complaint filed in municipal court, video evidence shows Crisp-Carr participating in an initial fight that escalated when gunfire erupted. After another man began shooting, Crisp-Carr moved away from the group, then turned and fired into the crowd without apparent regard for who was in his path.
Authorities have also issued an arrest warrant for Ka Nye Taylor, the second suspect, who had not been apprehended as of Friday.
The shooting unfolded June 6 during the Old West End festival in a Toledo park crowded with food vendors, musicians, and hundreds of attendees. Police said a confrontation between rival groups sparked the violence, though neither of the two men who fired shots was among those injured. The victims ranged in age from teenagers to a person in their 60s.
A detective investigating the case identified Crisp-Carr through witness statements, social media posts, and law enforcement photographs. The investigation revealed that Crisp-Carr fired multiple rounds after the initial shooter opened fire.
The incident forced organizers to cancel the festival's second day. Bystanders fled in panic, but others immediately stepped in to help the wounded. At a news conference days after the shooting, city officials highlighted the rapid response of good Samaritans and first responders, with the fire chief noting that frightened witnesses applied tourniquets, dressed wounds, and comforted victims until emergency personnel arrived.
Toledo sits on Ohio's northwestern border with Michigan, roughly 55 miles southwest of Detroit. The Old West End neighborhood where the festival took place is known for its Victorian-era architecture and historic character.
The shooting marks one of more than 180 mass shooting incidents recorded in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The nonprofit tracks incidents in which four or more people are shot or killed, regardless of outcome.
Author James Rodriguez: "This is what preventable American violence looks like: a neighborhood festival, ordinary families, split-second chaos that could have been stopped years ago if Congress had actually acted on anything."
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