A former police officer in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is a free man after allegedly plotting to kill Black people in a planned mass shooting at a festival in New Orleans.
A Louisiana grand jury decided there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Christoper Gillum on state terrorism charges, which could have landed the ex-cop in jail for up to 15 years.
Law enforcement officials, who arrested the 45-year-old in April at a hotel in Destin, Florida, quietly released him from jail over the summer after the grand jury decision.
Hard to Prosecute
Investigators said the North Carolina man had a gun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition when he was arrested.
According to the Oskaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, the ex-cop allegedly planned to travel to the unnamed New Orleans festival to execute a mass shooting, then commit “suicide by cop.”
And while Louisiana charged Gillum, who is white, with a state terrorism charge, an expert told the Associated Press that “thwarted acts of mass violence do not always lead to indictments, but prosecutors often seek an array of criminal charges when possible.”
Former Chicago prosecutor and FBI trainer Katherine Schweit said these kinds of cases are hard to prosecute.
“It’s very difficult to convince a jury, or to convince a grand jury, that something might have happened,” she said.
‘Who was the Grand Jury?’
Social media disagreed exploding in outrage, pointing out among other facts that Gillum clearly benefitted from “white privilege” in this case.
“That’s that white privilege A black guy like Jussie smollet get dragged through the court for lying about an attack and a white guy is planning to kill black folks get a pass Black folks need to unite like our predecessors did in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s…..” a Threads user stated.
“Who was the grand jury??” Threads user Adrianna asked above a photo of a Ku Klux Klan march.
“Another example of a white police officers disdained hatred for black people. There’s never enough evidence when someone White does harm to someone black,” this poster pointed out.
Others piled on with comments ranging from, “Evil running rampant unchecked” to “Amerikkka,” intentionally spelled with “kkk.”
Releasing Gillum made another wonder, “So they want him to carry out his plan?”
Family Sounded the Alarm
A day before his arrest in April, Gillum’s family reported him missing, according to WWNY. Family members told law enforcement that he had a gun and “expressed recent threats to harm Black people.” They also reported he had a history of self-harm.
A spokesperson with the Louisiana Attorney General’s office said Gillum’s family had taken him “to a treatment facility out of the state,” the AP reported.
Law enforcement across three states, North Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, helped track Gillum down.
While Gillum is not facing any criminal charges in Louisiana, it’s unclear if he might face charges in either of the other two states.
Although investigators did not say which event Gillum was targeting, he was arrested a day before the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
