A former law enforcement officer accused of planning to kill Black people in a mass shooting at a New Orleans festival was quietly released from custody over the summer after a grand jury found there was not enough evidence to charge him with a crime.
Background
Christopher Gillum, a 45-year-old ex-police officer from Chapel Hill, had been arrested in Florida in April with hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a semi-automatic rifle while on his way to Louisiana to commit a mass shooting, according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office.
Gillum, who is white, had expressed recent threats to harm ‘Black people’, according to authorities. His family had reported him missing in North Carolina and said he had a history of self-harm.
A Louisiana grand jury in June declined to indict Gillum on a state terrorism charge that could have carried up to a 15-year sentence, court records show. Gillum’s release has not previously been reported.
Investigation and Release
Lester Duhe, a spokesperson for Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, said in a statement that Gillum’s family had taken him ‘to a treatment facility out of the state’ and that he is not facing additional criminal charges.
Duhe said there were ‘several jurisdictional issues’ that complicated the case after Gillum was extradited to Louisiana following his arrest. ‘The threat relayed to a family member actually occurred in North Carolina,’ Duhe said. ‘The defendant never entered the State of Louisiana until after his arrest.’
Gillum had been planning to travel to the Florida Keys ‘during the same period he would have been suspected to travel to Louisiana,’ Duhe added.
Gillum was charged under a Louisiana statute for the crime of ‘terrorizing’, which requires that ‘a crime of violence is imminent or in progress or that a circumstance dangerous to human life exists or is about to exist.’
Reaction and Next Steps
Jonathan Guidry, the foreperson for the grand jury, declined to comment on the decision to not indict Gillum.
Katherine Schweit, a former Chicago prosecutor and FBI executive who ran the agency’s active shooter program, said that thwarted acts of mass violence do not always lead to indictments, but prosecutors often seek an array of criminal charges when possible.
Law enforcement authorities in North Carolina, where Louisiana court records list Gillum as residing, told the AP that they were not aware he had been released from custody.
Original reporting: Brookhaven News – ABC7 New York — read the source article.
