Christopher Gillum, a former North Carolina law enforcement officer, was arrested in Florida after authorities said he planned a mass shooting targeting Black people at New Orleans’ Jazz & Heritage Festival, according to an announcement and statements reported by the Associated Press. Authorities said federal investigators and law enforcement in several states coordinated after receiving information about Gillum and his travel toward Louisiana. The festival, often called Jazz Fest, runs from Thursday through May 3 and typically draws large crowds, organizers said.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office in Florida posted online Thursday that Gillum was wanted on “terroristic threats.” The office said federal authorities told it that Gillum was “heading to do a mass shooting at a large festival in Louisiana.” An FBI presence in New Orleans said it was working with law enforcement across the three states involved in the investigation.
The sheriff’s office said Gillum was arrested without incident Wednesday night at a hotel in Destin, Florida. Deputies recovered a handgun and about 200 rounds of ammunition from the hotel room, the statement said. Authorities said Gillum was taken into custody as a fugitive from justice and would be extradited to Louisiana to face charges there, though it was not immediately known whether he had a lawyer. The Associated Press reported it left messages at phone numbers listed for him.
Investigators said Gillum’s case began in North Carolina after his family reported him missing. Lt. Clint Lyons of the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office said Gillum had a history of self-harm and that his family told law enforcement he had a gun and had “expressed recent threats to harm ‘Black people,’” according to a bulletin from Burlington, North Carolina police. Lyons said Gillum left the state before the agency could prepare paperwork to involuntarily commit him to psychiatric treatment.
Lyons said there were no criminal grounds to detain Gillum based on the statements because there was “no victim,” according to the bulletin, but authorities nevertheless decided to spread information about him to other departments. The Burlington bulletin said officers in North Carolina learned Gillum had left, and later that day, Okaloosa deputies were initially asked to do a “welfare check” without knowing he had been making violent threats, according to a sheriff spokesperson.
After the Okaloosa sheriff’s office learned Gillum was under investigation, deputies surveilled him until an arrest warrant arrived from Louisiana, sheriff spokesperson Michele Nicholson said. According to Lyons and the Burlington police bulletin, Gillum was located and stopped by law enforcement in Okaloosa County on Wednesday. The bulletin said Gillum told officers he was “enroute to New Orleans,” and that he “did not present any grounds for involuntary commitment or criminal charges,” and was allowed to continue on his way.
Louisiana State Police said at the time of the announcement that there were no known direct threats to festivals in Louisiana. State Police spokesperson Trooper Danny Berrincha said it was working with law enforcement as the FBI continued investigating the case across state lines.
Authorities also described Gillum’s previous work in law enforcement in North Carolina and his various departures from those jobs. The Associated Press reported Gillum served as a sworn police officer in Chapel Hill from 2004 until his resignation in 2019, and later worked as a police officer in the coastal town of Carolina Beach from October 2019 until his resignation the following October, town officials said. The reporting said he became a detention officer with the Orange County, North Carolina, sheriff’s office in October 2023 and left in July 2024, then returned to Chapel Hill as a non-sworn employee in 2024 before leaving again by the end of the year. The article said Gillum was rehired as an Orange County sheriff’s deputy in January 2025 but resigned that September.
At the time of the arrest, authorities described the matter as an effort to prevent a planned mass attack rather than an ongoing active incident at the festival grounds. The investigation continued as officials said they were coordinating among law enforcement agencies in Louisiana, Florida and North Carolina.