Former Chapel Hill police officer arrested in Florida over alleged New Orleans mass shooting threat

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- A North Carolina man accused of threatening a mass shooting in New Orleans has been taken into custody in Florida, authorities said.

Christopher Gillum, of Chapel Hill, was arrested Wednesday evening at a Destin hotel by deputies with the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office. Investigators said they were able to locate Gillum using the county's Flock camera system after receiving information that he was in the area.

Gillum is wanted in Orleans Parish by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety on a charge of terroristic threats. Authorities said they obtained information indicating Gillum planned to travel to a festival in New Orleans with the intent to carry out a mass shooting, specifically targeting Black people, and "then commit suicide by cop."

Though the festival has not been named, Thursday is the first day of New Orleans Jazz Fest.

Deputies said they recovered a handgun and about 200 rounds of ammunition from Gillum's hotel room on Scenic Highway 98.

Retired FBI investigator Frank Brostrom said agencies in several states worked together to stop the alleged plot.

"He decided to do a terrorist act. He did a couple of things in that overt act. He traveled interstate, he purchased or possessed firearms, a large amount of ammunition, and he's making his way to where he was going to go," Brostrom said.

The Chapel Hill Police Department told ABC11 that Gillum served as a police officer from 2004 to 2019. He worked as a police officer in Carolina Beach from October 2019 until his resignation the following October, town administrative services officer Sheila Nicholson said. Gillum became a detention officer in October 2023 with the Orange County Sheriff's Office and left in July 2024, spokesperson Alicia L. Stemper said.

He returned to Chapel Hill in 2024 as a nonsworn employee, then left to work as an Orange County deputy from January to September 2025.

Guillum has a long history with law enforcement in North Carolina, and it was a tool used by law enforcement that helped deputies locate him: Flock's license-plate reader system.

Burlington Police said Thursday that the Alamance County Sheriff's Office contacted the department on Wednesday about a missing person. As the investigation progressed, the Alamance County Sheriff's Office and the Burlington Police Department "developed reasons to believe Gillum was a danger to himself and others."

Gillum's family reported him missing on Tuesday, and he has a history of self-harm, according to Lt. Clint Lyons of the Alamance County Sheriff's Office. Gillum's family told law enforcement he had a gun and had "expressed recent threats to harm 'Black people.'"

Lyons said Gillum left the state before the sheriff's office could prepare paperwork to involuntarily commit him to psychiatric treatment. Lyons said there were no criminal grounds to detain Gillum despite his comments about Black people, "because there was no victim," however, the agency decided it needed to spread the word about him to other departments.

Burlington Police's Aerial Reconnaissance Tactical Intelligence Center (ARTIC), used Flock cameras to determine Gillum was heading south toward Florida and began contacting other agencies, including the New Orleans Police Department and the Louisiana State Police.

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Gillum was stopped by law enforcement officers in Okaloosa County on Wednesday, Burlington Police said, but he "did not present any grounds for involuntary commitment or criminal charges" and was allowed to drive away. Gillum told officers he was "en route to New Orleans."

Okaloosa deputies were initially asked to make a "welfare check" on him Wednesday morning, but they didn't know he'd been making violent threats, Okaloosa sheriff spokesperson Michele Nicholson said. Later that day, after the sheriff's office learned Gillum was being investigated, deputies surveilled him until an arrest warrant arrived from Louisiana, she added.

New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno released a statement on the arrest:

"I want to recognize the tremendous coordinated and swift work by the New Orleans FBI, Louisiana State Police, NOPD, NOCEM and governor. This level of coordination extended to law enforcement agencies in multiple states from North Carolina to Florida. This is where urgent collaboration and cooperation pays off. Job well done! We will continue working closely with our law enforcement partners at every level to ensure that any potential danger is addressed quickly and decisively. The safety of our residents and visitors will always be my top priority."

Brostrom said investigators are now determining what charges Gillum could face.

"Law enforcement and the prosecutors will decide, is that enough to charge him with, you know, intent to commit bodily harm or murder, intent to commit a domestic terrorist act, and they'll be looking at that very closely," he said. "They're going to talk to his supervisors and the executives for those agencies that he worked for, and dig into that employment file and find out, was there something going on that identified that he had an issue early on. How was his firearm skills? How was his attendance record? Did he have discipline?"

Part of that review includes Gillum's long history in law enforcement. Brostrom said investigators will examine his employment records closely.

"They're going to go back to the Human Resources Department of everywhere that he worked, probably in the last 20-25 years, and they're going to find out why he moved around so much. That was my first key that something was amiss all the jumping around," he said.

According to ABC News, police alerted law enforcement agencies that Gillum had threatened to harm Black people. Brostrom said investigators will now look for clues about what may have motivated him.

"They're going to go back and look at cases in which he was a witness, and he gathered evidence. They may have to go back and review those cases," he said.

Gillum is being held in the Okaloosa County Jail while awaiting extradition to Louisiana.

- ABC News and The Associated Press contributed.