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A former North Carolina police officer was arrested in Florida after authorities said he planned a mass shooting at a New Orleans music festival.
Christopher Gillum, 45, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was taken into custody around 6:40 p.m. Wednesday at a hotel in Destin, Florida, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said.
Authorities said Gillum was wanted for making “terroristic threats” and was believed to be traveling to a festival in New Orleans to “conduct a mass shooting.”
Investigators recovered a handgun and about 200 rounds of ammunition from his hotel room.
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Authorities said they tracked and arrested a suspect at a Florida hotel after learning of an alleged plan to carry out a mass shooting at a New Orleans event. (Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office)
Gillum’s family reported him missing Tuesday, telling authorities he had a history of self-harm and had made threats to harm “Black people,” according to a police bulletin from Burlington, North Carolina.
Lt. Clint Lyons of the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office said Gillum left the state before authorities could initiate an involuntary commitment, adding there were no legal grounds to detain him at the time.
Earlier Wednesday, Gillum was stopped by law enforcement in Okaloosa County but was released because he did not meet criteria for arrest or commitment, according to the bulletin.
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Authorities arrested a former North Carolina police officer in Florida after investigators said he planned a mass shooting at a New Orleans music festival, officials said. (Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office)
Deputies later conducted surveillance after learning he was under investigation and arrested him once a warrant was issued from Louisiana, authorities said.
Gillum is expected to be extradited to Louisiana to face charges, the sheriff’s office said.
Authorities did not name the event, but the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival — known as Jazz Fest — runs through May 3 and draws hundreds of thousands of attendees annually. Louisiana State Police said “there are no known direct threats” to any festivals in the state.
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A former police officer was taken into custody in Florida after authorities said they found a handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in an alleged plot targeting a New Orleans festival. (Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office)
Gillum served as a sworn police officer in Chapel Hill from 2004 until his resignation in 2019, according to a town spokesperson.
He later worked as a police officer in Carolina Beach from October 2019 to October 2020, then became a detention officer with the Orange County, North Carolina, Sheriff’s Office in October 2023, leaving in July 2024.
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A handgun and ammunition recovered from a Florida hotel room are shown after authorities arrested a suspect in an alleged plot targeting a New Orleans festival, officials said. (Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office)
Gillum returned to the Chapel Hill Police Department as a non-sworn employee in 2024 before leaving later that year. He was rehired as an Orange County sheriff’s deputy in January 2025 but resigned that September.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.