A man charged with 25 counts of attempted murder for a mass shooting that wounded 12 people at an Ohio festival walked free Friday after prosecutors dropped every charge — admitting they found evidence that might prove he wasn't the shooter.

Eljay Crisp-Carr, 20, spent roughly five months behind bars facing more than 50 felony counts for the June 6 shooting at Toledo's Old West End Festival. At a hearing before Judge Lori Olender of the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas, prosecutors asked the court to dismiss all charges "without prejudice" — meaning they could refile later, but for now, Crisp-Carr is a free man.

The reason should alarm anyone who thinks the justice system is supposed to protect the innocent on both sides. "In September 2026, the Lucas County Prosecutor's Office informed Mr. Crisp-Carr's attorney of discovery that may support his defense," the office said in a statement. They didn't say what that evidence is. They didn't explain why it took five months to surface. They just let him go.

Crisp-Carr's defense team says he wasn't even at the festival. According to Toledo's WTVG, his attorneys presented video and cellphone evidence supporting his alibi. Defense attorney Alex Bodiford told WKYC that 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."

Crisp-Carr said authorities had the wrong man from the start. "They told me I was a monster," he told WTVG. "They just incriminated me." He said he believed he was mistaken for someone else in a photograph. His mother, April Carr, told WKYC she was "ecstatic": "I'm beyond excited because what mother wants their child to be broadcast across the world for something they didn't do?"

The outlets diverge in emphasis. The Guardian framed the dismissal as vindication, leading with Crisp-Carr's release and his family's relief. CBS News was more clinical, noting that two adults were originally arrested and that charges remain pending against the second man — plus a juvenile. CBS identified a third suspect, a 17-year-old, whose case is also still pending. That detail matters: the case isn't closed. Someone is still being prosecuted. But whether that person is the actual shooter — or another wrong man — remains an open question.

Breitbart, for its part, ran a different story entirely: rapper Rick Ross had a felony battery-by-strangulation charge dropped in Miami for "insufficient evidence," though a misdemeanor domestic violence charge remains. Different case, different jurisdiction, same pattern — prosecutors walking away from serious charges and leaving the public to wonder whether justice was served or simply abandoned.

The Toledo shooting itself was chaos. Police Chief Michael Troendle said at a June 9 press conference that a dispute between rival groups escalated into two people shooting at each other. None of the shooters were among the wounded. The victims — ages 14 to 61 — were bystanders caught in the crossfire at a community festival that was supposed to be a celebration. The second day was canceled.

The Gun Violence Archive counted more than 385 mass shootings in the U.S. by the time of Crisp-Carr's release, according to The Guardian.

The prosecutor's office — led by Lucas County Prosecuting Attorney Julia R. Bates, per CBS News — insists the investigation continues. "Both the department and our office remain committed to following the evidence and getting it right, just as we are in every case," their statement read.

But the question the people of Toledo are left with is the one no official wants to answer: if Crisp-Carr didn't do it, who did? And if the evidence to clear him was there all along, why did it take five months to find it?

Twelve people were shot. A man spent five months in jail. And the person who pulled the trigger might still be walking the streets.