A former law enforcement officer, Christopher Gillum, was accused of planning to kill Black people in a mass shooting at a New Orleans festival. However, he was released from custody after a grand jury found there was not enough evidence to charge him with a crime.

Investigation and Release

Gillum, who had been held without bond, was released shortly after the grand jury’s decision and is not facing charges in any other jurisdictions, according to his attorney, Dylan Utley. The investigation had involved the FBI and authorities across Louisiana, North Carolina, and Florida.

Authorities did not name the event Gillum was allegedly targeting, but his arrest came on the eve of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which attracts hundreds of thousands of festivalgoers annually. Gillum, who is white, had expressed recent threats to harm ‘Black people’, according to authorities.

Grand Jury Decision

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. 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.’

Original reporting: Alexandria, VA News – WTOP News — read the source article.