Gang leader shot to death after release from jail due to coronavirus, DA says

New Orleans prosecutors say the alleged leader of a heroin-dealing gang who was awaiting trial was killed Sunday just days after he was released from jail due to the coronavirus. Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office said 33-year-old Glynn McCormick was shot more than a dozen times around 3:15 pm Sunday near the corner of Dumaine and North Broad streets by someone with an assault-style rifle. Prosecutors say McCormick was not sheltering at home from the coronavirus and was instead roaming his former drug-dealing turf known as “D-Block.” Cannizzaro’s office said McCormick, described as the leader of a “violent heroin-dealing enterprise,” was awaiting trial for racketeering when he was released from custody on April 1. The DA’s office said Criminal District Judge Darryl Derbigny ordered McCormick’s release, over objections from prosecutors, in response to a COVID-19 related motion to reduce bond filed by McCormick’s attorney. “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 Judge Derbigny reduced that bond to $150,000 three months later. Last Wednesday, prosecutors say Judge Derbigny dropped the bond to $50,000, then changed it to a recognizance bond which allowed McCormick’s immediate release over the state’s objection, according to Cannizzarro. “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.”