Editor’s Note: Around 8 p.m. Wednesday night, Quintez Brown was released from Metro Corrections.

The Louisville Community Bail Fund has posted bond for Quintez Brown, the prominent Louisville activist charged in the attempted shooting of Democratic mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg. 

Brown has not yet been released, said Chanelle Helm with the bail fund, and she said she is not sure when he will be. Brown’s bond was set at $100,000 on Tuesday.

“The reason why we did post bail in this case is because he desperately needs mental health help, and the jail does not have that,” said Helm. 

Metro Corrections is currently facing issues of understaffing and overcrowding: Six people have died while in custody since November, and more than one has been reported as a suicide. The director of Metro Corrections has said that the jail’s mental health contractor is short on team members. 

Helm said that the bail fund has a community support plan put together for Brown upon his release, including mental health support. At Brown’s arraignment on Wednesday, his lawyer Rob Eggert said he believes that there were “serious mental issues at play” in Brown’s case. 

When released, Brown will be on home incarceration. He also will not be allowed to contact Greenberg or his campaign staff, nor will he be able to possess a firearm or other weapons, as conditions of his release.

Helm said that, with Brown’s release, there is “absolutely not” a threat to Greenberg’s safety. 

“Quintez is out with HIP [Home Incarceration Program] and some restrictions,” she said. “So that has nothing to do with is he going to harm him again, that’s why those restrictions are there. But he will immediately go into his support plan that we’ve developed for him, and that was requested by his lawyer. And that’s what everybody does that gets out on bail with us.”

In an interview with 840 WHAS yesterday, Greenberg declined to say what he thought of the bond set for Brown.

Brown is charged with attempted murder and four charges of wanton endangerment in the first degree. 

When LEO inquired to Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell’s Office about Brown entering the Home Incarceration Program, O’Connell said, via a statement, that, “It is frustrating that my office has such little control in these situations.” 

“Unlike the federal system, bond must be set under Kentucky law,” he continued. “We successfully argued for and received a higher bond commensurate with the seriousness of the offense. We successfully argued that if posted, the defendant should be on home incarceration. However, the criteria of release should not be the ability to access a certain amount of money. It should be the threat to the community and whether there is a history of non appearance in court. I’ve said previously that people should not be in jail just because they can’t afford bond or be released just because they can. We should have a system like the federal government where my office can provide evidence and a judge can decide. Kentucky current system does not allow that. Our office has kept the victim involved throughout this process.”

The Louisville Community Bail Fund is managed by Black Lives Matter Louisville. It uses its funds, sourced from the community, to bail out people from jail and, according to its website, to “provide post-release support to get them from jail, fed and to a situation of safety.”

Brown was arrested on Monday less than half a mile from Greenberg’s office at 10:25 a.m., according to the Louisville Metro Police Department’s citation. 

Ten minutes before, police said they were called to the 1200 block of Story Avenue, where Greenberg’s campaign office is located, over “reports of an active aggressor.”

Greenberg told media on Monday that he was at his office that morning, in a meeting with four of his staffers, when a man with a gun walked in, aimed directly at him and opened fire. Greenberg said a member of his staff was able to slam the door shut. Staff then barricaded the doorway. Greenberg and his staff present in the office were uninjured, but Greenberg said a bullet hit his sweater and shirt. 

When police arrested Brown, they say they found a drawstring bag with a 9mm handgun, a handgun case and 9mm magazines, in addition to a loaded magazine in his pants pocket. 

Brown is a well known activist in Louisville, where he was a prominent voice in the 2020 racial justice protests.

Helm told LEO that, all the young people involved in 2020’s uprisings need mental health help.

“It’s very traumatizing,” she said. 

Brown went missing on June 19 of last year, causing widespread concern for his safety. While he was missing, Louisville Urban League CEO Sadiqa Reynolds said Brown’s family believed he may be going through a “mental health crisis.” A little less than two weeks after he went missing, police and Brown’s family said he had been found. It appeared that Brown had been located in New York City.

Brown also spoke at the launch of Charles Booker’s 2020 campaign for U.S. Senate. He is a senior at UofL, where he has a full scholarship as a Martin Luther King Scholar. He was an intern and columnist at the Courier Journal.

He also wrote one piece for LEO Weekly in February 2020, an opinion article about what he perceived to be UofL’s inclusivity failures.