Alleged gang leader is shot, killed days after release from jail due to COVID-19 precautions
NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans attorneys say the alleged leader of a heroin-dealing gang was gunned down and killed only days after his release from jail due to the coronavirus.
WWL-TV reports that Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office says 33-year-old Glynn McCormick was shot more than a dozen times Sunday afternoon near the corner of Dumaine and North Broad Streets.
Cannizzaro’s office said McCormick was awaiting trial for racketeering when he was released from custody on April 1.
“Perhaps this judge thought he was doing someone a favor disregarding our objection. But as we argued last week, Mr. McCormick’s release served no public health need and certainly no public safety purpose,” Cannizzaro said.
Prosecutors say McCormick was the leader of nine “D-Block” defendants indicted in May 2018.
His bond was initially set at $1 million but prosecutors say three months later, a judge reduced that bond to $150,000.
Then, last Wednesday, the same judge dropped McCormick's bond to $50,000, and changed it to a recognizance bond which allowed McCormick’s immediate release.
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Last month, Orleans Parish Criminal Court judges ordered the release of some lower-level offenders and pre-trial defendants from the city's prison facility due to the threat of the coronavirus.
But the state objected that McCormick wasn't fit for release.
“With all New Orleans residents — incarcerated or not — vulnerable to the rampant spread of COVID-19, prosecutors have helped reduce the city’s jail population by letting most judges’ bond-reduction or inmate release decisions stand unchallenged since mid-March,” the DA’s office said. “McCormick, given his dangerous criminal history, was an exception which warranted the state’s objection.”
Despite objections, McCormick was allowed to return home and was shot to death within five days.