Ohio police arrest suspect in Toledo festival shooting that wounded 12

Police in Ohio arrested 20-year-old Eljay Crisp-Carr in the Toledo festival shooting that wounded 12 people, giving investigators a major break in a case that rattled the city’s Old West End neighborhood. Crisp-Carr was charged with 11 counts of felonious assault, and a judge set bond at $1.1 million as officers continued to search for another 20-year-old suspect, Ka Nye Taylor.

The shooting erupted near the Old West End Festival around 5:30 to 5:37 p.m. on June 6, in a park area near Delaware Street and Robinwood Avenue where event tents, a music stage and food trucks were set up. The festival was in its 53rd year and had been scheduled for June 6-7, with the King Wamba Carnival Parade, a revival of a New Orleans-style parade first held in Toledo in 1909, among its signature attractions.

Toledo police and city officials said the violence appeared to involve two rival groups, a foot chase and an exchange of gunfire. Authorities said two firearms believed to have been used in the shooting were seized. Police have also said the suspect descriptions released to the public included Black men in their 20s, and that Taylor remained wanted on 11 counts of felonious assault.

The arrest answered one immediate question but left others open. Investigators still have to determine what started the confrontation, whether Crisp-Carr acted alone, whether other shooters or accomplices were involved, and whether the gunfire was targeted or indiscriminate. The charge pattern suggests prosecutors are treating each injured person as a separate victim, a common approach in mass-shooting cases that can broaden the legal case well beyond a single trigger pull.

All 12 victims were expected to survive, and by Tuesday nine had been released from the hospital, Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said. Police said three of the people shot were involved in the initial dispute and nine were bystanders, a detail that has sharpened the public safety questions surrounding the festival grounds and the broader summer-event season. Kapszukiewicz and police chief Michael Troendle have both kept the case active in public appeals for videos and other tips, while the city’s immediate goal, the mayor said, is to help the wounded and reassure families that public events can still be safe.