Ex-Cop Plans Mass Shooting at New Orleans Jazz Festival

Authorities say a former North Carolina law enforcement officer was stopped before he could carry out what investigators believe was a racially motivated mass shooting targeting Black people at a major Louisiana festival.

Christopher Gillum of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was arrested Wednesday night at a hotel in Destin, Florida, after authorities said he was traveling toward Louisiana with plans to unleash violence at a large public event in New Orleans. While officials have not publicly identified the festival by name, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, better known as Jazz Fest, began Thursday and is expected to draw massive crowds through May 3. Organizers said the event brought in roughly 460,000 people last year.

According to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, Gillum was taken into custody without incident after federal investigators warned local authorities he was headed to Louisiana to carry out a mass shooting. Deputies said they found a handgun and around 200 rounds of ammunition inside his hotel room.

The allegations have sent shockwaves across multiple states, especially because Gillum once wore a badge himself. Authorities say the suspect, who is white, had allegedly made threats about wanting to harm Black people, prompting urgent warnings among law enforcement agencies in North Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana.

Gillum is currently being held as a fugitive from justice and is expected to be extradited to Louisiana, where he will face charges. It was not immediately clear whether he has an attorney.

The disturbing case began unfolding after Gillum’s family reported him missing Tuesday. Lt. Clint Lyons of the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office said Gillum has a history of self-harm, and his family alerted law enforcement that he was armed and had recently made threats against Black people. A bulletin issued by police in Burlington, North Carolina, said his relatives specifically warned that he had voiced intentions to harm Black individuals.

Even more alarming, Lyons said Gillum left North Carolina before authorities could complete paperwork to have him involuntarily committed for psychiatric treatment. He also said there were no immediate criminal grounds to detain him at that point because, in the eyes of the law, there was no specific victim tied to the threats.

That gap in the system is now raising serious questions.

Authorities were able to locate Gillum in Florida on Wednesday, but an earlier stop did not lead to his detention. According to the Burlington police bulletin, Gillum was initially encountered by law enforcement in Okaloosa County, but at that time he did not meet the legal threshold for involuntary commitment or criminal charges, so he was allowed to continue traveling. The bulletin said Gillum told officers he was on his way to New Orleans.

Later that same day, the situation escalated. Okaloosa County deputies were first asked to conduct a welfare check on Gillum Wednesday morning, but sheriff’s office spokesperson Michele Nicholson said they were not yet aware of the violent threats he had allegedly made. Once authorities learned he was under investigation, deputies began surveilling him until an arrest warrant out of Louisiana was secured. That warrant ultimately led to his arrest at the hotel Wednesday night.

Louisiana State Police said there are currently no known direct threats to any festivals in the state, but the near miss is still deeply unsettling given the scale of the event and the nature of the alleged target.

Gillum’s employment history is also drawing intense scrutiny. Officials said he served as a sworn officer with the Chapel Hill Police Department from 2004 until resigning in 2019. He later worked as a police officer in Carolina Beach from October 2019 until October 2020. He then became a detention officer with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in October 2023 before leaving in July 2024.

Authorities said Gillum later returned to Chapel Hill police as a non-sworn employee in 2024 before departing again by the end of that year. He was rehired as an Orange County sheriff’s deputy in January 2025 and resigned in September 2025.

That history is likely to add another layer of concern to a case already touching on race, public safety, and the troubling reality that someone with a law enforcement background is now accused of planning a mass killing aimed at Black festivalgoers.

For many, the story is not just about one arrest. It is about how close the country may have come to another racist act of mass violence and how many warning signs appeared before authorities were finally able to intervene.

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