A 45-year-old former law enforcement officer who was arrested after allegedly plotting a racially motivated mass shooting at a New Orleans festival has been released from custody. Christopher Gillum, a former police officer from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, walked free after a Louisiana grand jury declined to indict him on a state terrorism charge.
The case began in April when Gillum was taken into custody by deputies at a hotel in Destin, Florida, following an intensive multi-state investigation involving the FBI and local authorities. Investigators stated that family members had reported Gillum missing and raised alarms after he made troubling statements expressing threats to harm Black people, intending to travel to a New Orleans festival, execute a mass shooting, and die by suicide by cop. Authorities recovered a handgun and approximately 200 rounds of ammunition from his hotel room.
Although Gillum was extradited to Louisiana to face a felony charge of terrorizing, jurisdictional hurdles complicated the prosecution. Representatives for the Louisiana Attorney General’s office noted that the initial threats communicated to family members occurred in North Carolina, and Gillum never physically entered Louisiana until after his arrest. In late June, the grand jury ultimately declined to return an indictment, finding insufficient evidence to proceed under the specific statute. Following his release from the Orleans Justice Center, Gillum’s family reportedly transported him to an out-of-state treatment facility, and he currently faces no active criminal charges in any jurisdiction
