A man has been federally indicted on two counts after investigators allege he threw an airsoft grenade in the parking lot of a Home Depot in Baltimore toward a group of day laborers.

Brent Goetz, 23, of Sparrows Point is charged in U.S. District Court in Baltimore with possession of an unregistered firearm and transportation of an explosive with the intent to kill, injure or intimidate.

He was scheduled to stand trial this week in Baltimore Circuit Court on charges of using a destructive device and second-degree assault.

The Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office has dropped the case.

Goetz appeared Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Chelsea J. Crawford, who determined that federal prosecutors had failed to show he needed to be detained until trial.

Crawford ordered Goetz to be released from custody under the conditions that he live with his parents and stay in Maryland. His parents agreed to remove any guns from the house.

Andrew Alperstein, Goetz‘s attorney, described his client as a “rule follower” and a “scared young kid.” He had been working as part of the project to renovate the Howard Street Tunnel.

“He is a kid who thought he was playing a prank,” Alperstein said. “It was a stupid, dumb thing to do.”

Airsoft grenades are simulated weapons that typically use compressed gas or springs to explode, and some expel pellets or plastic and foam fragments.

Alperstein noted that people can buy them on Amazon, adding there’s a “legitimate debate” about whether they are a destructive device.

Goetz, he said, threw the airsoft grenade under a car.

On April 27, Baltimore Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded to the Home Depot on Eastern Avenue in Southeast Baltimore for a report of a hand grenade being thrown from a vehicle and exploding.

Law enforcement reported seeing debris and components that were consistent with a TAG-67 airsoft grenade.

A man reported that he was waiting in the parking lot with a group of day laborers when a car approached. The driver threw an object toward them, and he heard a loud noise that sounded like an explosion, police allege.

No one was hurt.

Police reviewed surveillance video, spotted a 2016 Toyota Camry and looked up the vehicle registration.

Detectives spoke with the owner of the car, Jeffrey Goetz, who told them his son drives the vehicle. The Life360 location-sharing app showed he left his parents’ home and traveled to the home improvement store, police assert.

Officers later executed search and seizure warrants. They found a pin to a TAG-67 airsoft grenade on the driver’s seat floorboard of the car, along with three more in Brent Goetz’s bedroom, police claim.

Goetz said, “I know why you are here,” police reported, and, “They are just airsoft grenades.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Aubin pushed for him to be detained until trial.

“It’s problematic,” Aubin said. “These are not individuals known to the defendant.”

Law enforcement, he said, is investigating the motive behind the crime.