Black guy threatens to kill his white neighbors, because a white guy had killed two blacks in Louisville in October 2018.

This racially motivated murder was only thwarted because the three rounds he fired at a white mother and her son missed.

An armed standoff with police ensued, and he was arrested.

The initial judge who heard the case set a $50,000 full cash bond bail, but the subsequent judge who heard the case is a criminal justice reform advocate who believes high cash bonds “unfairly hurt the poor.”

Regardless of the anti-white angle to the attempted murder of his white neighbors, this would-be black murderer (where it not for him being a bad shot) was released on a $10,000 surety bond and placed in home incarceration with his brother. [He allegedly fired at white neighbors to avenge black shootings. Then he got house arrest, Courier-Journal.com, June 26, 2019]:

Vowing to avenge last October’s shootings of two black grandparents at a Kroger store by a white suspect, Christopher Henry Duncan threatened in March to kill his next-door neighbors in Jeffersontown, who are white.

A few days later, on April 2, he acted on his threats, authorities say.

Duncan allegedly fired three shots into the home of Sara Skaggs and her son Joshua, who were not hit. Then he reportedly held Jeffersontown police at bay for several hours in an armed standoff.

Duncan, 64, was charged with wanton endangerment for creating a substantial risk of death or serious injury to Skaggs and her son. When he appeared in Jefferson District Court, Judge Amber Wolf marked him “dangerous” and set a $50,000 full cash bond.

But that changed when Judge Julie Kaelin, a former criminal defense attorney who was elected in November, heard Duncan’s case.

Kaelin has made no secret of her support for bail reform and her opposition to high cash bonds that she says unfairly hurt the poor.

Hearing Duncan’s motion for a bond reduction June 17, Kaelin noted that he had no criminal history and appeared to be mentally ill.

“I don’t want him sitting in jail getting no treatment whatsoever when he’s made it this far in life without a criminal record,” the judge said. “I have to balance protecting the public and not putting him in jail just because he is sick.”

Assistant County Attorney Casey Holland noted there was no evidence Duncan, a disabled former janitor, was mentally ill, and he pleaded with Kaelin to keep the high cash bond.

“We are dealing with a case where, but for bad aim, would be a murder charge,” he said.

At a hearing four days later, Holland said: “What we have here is a man who felt persecuted by a race other than his own, stockpiled assault-style weapons, used racial slurs against his neighbor of another race, shot at his neighbors repeatedly and only narrowly missed, then engaged in a hourslong standoff with police.”

Kaelin was not told specifically that Duncan’s alleged act was retaliation for the Kroger shootings.

In an email, Kaelin said she couldn’t comment on a pending case.

But ruling from the bench June 21, the judge noted that Duncan’s only prior brush with the law was a traffic ticket and that the charges, which also included resisting arrest, were the lowest level felonies.

She also noted that jail mental health experts, whom she had asked to monitor him closely over four days, said they didn’t think he was currently a danger.

Kaelin allowed him to be released on a $10,000 surety bond posted by his brother, Arthur Duncan, meaning he’d have to pay that amount if Christopher didn’t return to court.

She placed him in home incarceration at Arthur Duncan’s home on Berry Boulevard, about 16 miles from his own home — and the Skaggs’ — on Watterson Trail. The judge also said Christopher Duncan could leave his brother’s house to get treatment at the Veterans Louisville VA Medical Center.

In an interview, Sara Skaggs said she understands Kaelin’s concerns about high bonds and realizes they cause jail overcrowding. But Skaggs said she is worried Duncan could still harm her family.

“Why does she think he will obey the law now when he didn’t in the first place,” she asked in an email to the Courier Journal. “Please pray for me and my sons! I’m scared!”