BLM posts $100,000 bail for defund police activist, 21, honored by Obama who's now charged with attempted murder 'after walking into Jewish Democrat mayoral candidate's office and trying to assassinate him'
BLM has posted the $100,000 bail for an activist hailed by Obama who was charged with attempted murder after allegedly trying to assassinate a Jewish mayoral candidate.
Quintez Brown, 21, was accused of opening fire on Monday on Craig Greenberg, whose shirt was grazed by a bullet in his campaign headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky.
He was named as a 'rising face' by Barack Obama's foundation in 2019, and was one of just 22 participants chosen for the former president's My Brother's Keeper program, which is aimed at closing achievement gaps, and which saw Brown meet the former president.
The alleged attempted murderer still appears as a changemaker the Obama website bragging of his status as a role model for local boys.
DailyMail.com has contacted the foundation for further comment. Brown was also repeatedly hired by the BBC - the UK's prestigious public broadcaster - as a spokesman on race matters in the US.
And Brown was even employed as a columnist at his local paper, the Louisville Courier Journal, where he posted regular diatribes against the police and gun ownership.
Quintez Brown, a 21-year-old student at the University of Louisville and a Black Lives Matter activist, was charged with attempted murder for allegedly attempting to shoot mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg
Social activists used their publicly donated funds to secure Brown's release from behind bars, claiming he would be safer at home and he is suffering PTSD after two years of social unrest and the Covid pandemic.
Prosecutors had recommended a $75,000 bond for the BLM-supporting student at the University of Louisville, who is also a candidate for the city's metro council, but it was then raised to $100,000 through fear of his and the public's safety.
On Wednesday, BLM Louisville, together with the BLM-run Louisville Community Bail Fund, posted the full $100,000 cash bond.
Brown will now be in home incarceration fitted with a GPS ankle monitor after he left Metro Corrections Wednesday evening hours after the bail was paid.
It comes amid nationwide calls for tougher bail laws following a spate of brutal killings, including Brianna Kupfer, 24, stabbed to death in a luxury LA furniture store, and New York ad creative Christina Yuan Lee who was killed in her own apartment.
Chanelle Helm (pictured during BLM protests in 2020) said she knows Brown personally through their activism and they wanted to guarantee his safety
Brown, 21, was accused of opening fire on Monday on Greenberg (pictured), whose shirt was grazed by a bullet in his campaign headquarters in Louisville
Brown previously wrote a slew of opinion pieces for the Louisville Courier Journal website, including an attack on the city's police department
In another screed, he railed against a local concealed carry gun law
Brown was also named as a rising star by Barack Obama's foundation in 2019, and appears on the former president's website as a role model who bragged of inspiring young boys
The Louisville fund's cofounder and local BLM organizer Chanelle Helm said they wanted to keep Brown safe while he awaits trial, and she knows him personally through their activism.
She told WHAS-TV: 'They are calling for this individual, this young man who needs support and help, to be punished to the full extent.
'It is a resounding message that people are down for the torture that has taken place in our jails and prisons.'
She said there have been a spate of deaths in the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections in recent months and she wanted to guarantee his safety.
Helm added that many activists and organizers such as Brown are suffering from mental health problems and PTSD as a result of the unrest of the past two years and the Covid pandemic.
But questions over whether it was safe for Brown to be on the street are mounting, as his former columns offer a disturbing insight into just how different his words are to his alleged actions.
The column was published in July 2019, under the headline: 'Kentucky's concealed carry law shows your life doesn't matter to gun-loving Republicans.'
It said: 'Your life has no meaning to the irresponsible politicians in Frankfort who time and time again choose the National Rifle Association over your life.
'Their support for Senate Bill 150, which allows Kentuckians to carry concealed weapons without a permit, is yet another warning: They've put a price tag on your life and decided that the blood money they receive from the NRA is more valuable.
'Every time lawmakers vote against gun safety, and thus the lives of our most vulnerable, they show that their hearts can be as cold as the steel of the guns they praise.'
Astonishingly, another May 2021 column written by Brown - titled Louisville's huge police budget is the real boogeyman traumatizing Black people took aim at Louisville PD for failing to reduce gun violence.
He wrote: 'Trauma is not the phone call from a relative that your father is fighting for his life from a gunshot wound. Trauma is the emotional response as you process the inevitability of the moment. It includes the first wave of denial that drowns you in confusion, fear and shock. This can’t be real....
'How effective is the Louisville Metro Police Department at preventing crime? At 20 years of age, I find it hard to recall a time when crime was not rampant. I can’t recall a time when there was ever mutual trust between the so-called Black community and the police?'
Greenberg said Monday that he was at his campaign headquarters (pictured) with four colleagues when a man appeared in the doorway and began firing multiple rounds
She said: 'We have someone who has ignored the West End and has created multiple opportunities for himself that has been hit by this gun violence, and we have somebody who has been fighting and creating opportunities for others and himself to end gun violence in his community.'
But metro council president David James said the bail should not have been posted, saying: 'They are going to be responsible for what he may or may not do to anybody.'
A judge has ordered Brown not to have contact with the alleged victim, 46-year-old Craig Greenberg or his campaign staff.
Police said Brown appears to have acted alone and the motive remains under investigation.
After Brown briefly disappeared last year, family members said they were concerned about his mental health. His lawyer, Rob Eggert said Tuesday in court that 'there are serious mental issues at play here' and he will have Brown undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Craig Greenberg (pictured), a Jewish Democratic candidate for the mayor's seat in Louisville, was Brown's target in the alleged shooting on Tuesday
Brown’s lawyer said there are 'serious mental issues at play here' and he will have Brown undergo a psychiatric evaluation before trial
Greg Foreman, who hosts the Black Conservative Perspective on YouTube, said: 'You would think that an attempted murder, which was what this guy was charged with, that indicate he is a violent man, he would not get the opportunity to post bail.
'Or if he had the opportunity to post bail, it would be an extraordinarily high amount where it wouldn't be easy for a group like Black Lives Matter to be able to bail him out.'
It comes amid a national debate about bail conditions, after a number of killings from criminals who were out on bail.
On Sunday, Assamad Nash, a homeless serial criminal, allegedly followed a woman into her own Manhattan apartment and stabbed her 40 times in a frenzied attack.
Nash was charged with sexually-motivated burglary by prosecutors Monday, as it was revealed his victim Christina Yuan Lee was found topless in the bathtub of her Chinatown apartment.
Nash was on bail for robbery when he allegedly killed the ad creative.
A previous alleged assault was deemed insufficiently serious to hold him in custody pending trial, thanks to New York's bail reform laws aimed at lowering the state's jail population.
Similarly, Shawn Laval Smith, 31, has been charged with murder over the killing of 24-year-old Brianna Kupfer in LA last month.
Brianna was stabbed to death while working alone at the Croft House store on La Brea, just minutes after she texted a friend that a man in the store was 'giving her a bad vibe'.
Smith is a career criminal with a long rap sheet spanning both coasts, and was free on a $1,000 bond from a misdemeanor arrest in Los Angeles County in October 2020, sheriff's records show.
Darrell Brooks Jr., who is accused of killing six people and injuring dozens more when he drove an SUV through a suburban Christmas parade in Milwaukee, was also on bail at the time.
Weeks before the massacre, Brooks posted a $1,000 cash bail in a domestic abuse case after he was accused of deliberately hitting a woman with his car.
Brown was arrested shortly after the incident near Greenberg's offices (pictured). He was carrying a loaded magazine, 9 mm handgun, gun case, and additional magazines when he was arrested
Brown, a social justice activist running as an independent for the council, has campaigned with a slate of candidates opposed to projects that they say will worsen gentrification in Kentucky's largest city.
The apparent target of Monday's shooting, Greenberg has touted his experience at the center of the city's revitalization efforts, and helped draft legislation promoting developments in Louisville's predominantly Black west side.
Greenberg said on Tuesday that his ears were still ringing from the gunshots fired at him the day before. Despite the attack, he said his resolve to run for mayor has not wavered.
'If there's any good to come out of this, I hope it's that not only will I be a more effective mayor, but that I'll be someone who can bring the city together to unify around implementing solutions to end gun violence,' he said in a phone interview.
He said his team has tightened security but that he is committed to continuing to campaign in public.
'I'm focused on bringing people together,' Greenberg said. 'It's unfortunate that too many things right now are dividing people and I would hope that people start lowering the temperature.'
Greenberg said Monday that he was at his campaign headquarters with four colleagues when a man appeared in the doorway and began firing multiple rounds. He said the man pulled a gun, and began shooting at him.
'Despite one bullet coming so close that it grazed my sweater and my shirt, no one was physically harmed,' he said. One staffer managed to shut the door, which they barricaded using tables and desks, and the suspect fled, he said.
Apprehended a short time later less than a half-mile from the scene, Brown was carrying a loaded 9 mm magazine in his pants pocket and had a drawstring bag with a handgun and additional handgun magazines, according to the arrest report.
Brown, a former intern and editorial columnist for The Courier Journal, has been prolific on social media, tweeting and retweeting comments on social justice issues. In one recent post, Brown showed the faces of several young Blacks killed by gun violence in Louisville, writing: 'This is our reality. All of these kids are gone.'
'Gun violence reveals the interconnected nature of our reality,' Brown posted. 'What affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Especially in our segregated conditions.'
His Twitter profile bio reads: 'We have one scientific and correct solution, Pan-Africanism: the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism.'
Brown, who took part in the racial justice protests of 2020, reportedly went missing for 11 days in June 2021 before being found safe on July 1.
Brown has been prolific on social media, tweeting and retweeting comments on social justice issues
Charles Booker, a Louisville Democrat running for U.S. Senate, said Tuesday that he's known Brown since Brown was a student at the University of Louisville. Booker said when he last saw him in the summer of 2020, the man's focus was on helping others.
'The young man I knew then was working to end violence in our city, not carry it out,' Booker said in a release Tuesday afternoon.
Booker said his heart was broken for Greenberg, his family and campaign staff.
Greenberg has built a big fundraising lead in a crowded race to succeed outgoing Mayor Greg Fischer in the Democratic-leaning city. A Harvard-educated lawyer, Greenberg helped start Louisville-based 21c Museum Hotels, building the company to more than 1,100 employees. The company is credited with helping revive Main Street in downtown Louisville and other urban neighborhoods across the country.
Brown disappeared for about two weeks last summer. After he was found safe, his parents issued a statement asking for patience and privacy while they attended to 'Quintez's physical, mental and spiritual needs,' the Courier Journal reported.
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February 17, 2022
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