Ex-officer accused of planning to kill Black people in mass shooting released from custody

A former law enforcement officer accused of traveling toward Louisiana with plans to carry out a mass shooting targeting Black people has been released from custody after a grand jury declined to indict him on the state crime of terrorizing. 

A Louisiana grand jury in June declined to indict Christopher Gillum on a charge that could have carried up to a 15-year sentence, court records show.

Ex-officer Christopher Gillum released from custody

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Gillum, 45, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was freed this summer following the Louisiana grand jury's decision in June. He had been held without bond after authorities alleged he was preparing to commit an act of mass violence in New Orleans.

Gillum is not currently facing criminal charges in Louisiana or elsewhere, according to his attorney, Dylan Utley.

What they're saying:

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.

"It’s very difficult to convince a jury, or to convince a grand jury, that something might have happened," Schweit told The Associated Press.

Authorities in North Carolina said they had not been informed that Gillum had been released.

Byron Tucker, a spokesperson for the Alamance County Sheriff's Office, said local officials would want to know if someone accused of planning such violence returned to the county.

"If we’ve got an individual that was accused of such an action, we would want to know if in fact he did return to Alamance County," said Byron Tucker, a spokesperson for the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina.

Jonathan Guidry, the foreperson for the grand jury, declined to comment on the decision to not indict Gillum.

Christopher Gillum was traveling with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, authorities said

The backstory:

The case began in April, when Gillum was arrested in Florida while authorities said he was traveling with a handgun and roughly 200 rounds of ammunition. 

Gillum, who is white, had "expressed recent threats to harm ‘Black people,’" according to authorities. Investigators alleged Gillum was traveling to Louisiana to carry out a mass shooting.

His arrest came shortly before the start of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, one of the city's largest annual events. However, authorities never publicly identified the festival as Gillum's intended target.

The investigation stretched across several states and involved the FBI as well as law enforcement agencies in Louisiana, Florida and North Carolina.

But jurisdictional questions complicated prosecutors' efforts to bring the case to court.

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Lester Duhe, a spokesperson for Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, said the alleged threat was communicated to a family member while Gillum was in North Carolina. Gillum also had not entered Louisiana before authorities arrested him in Florida.

Duhe said investigators additionally found that Gillum had been considering a trip to the Florida Keys during roughly the same period authorities believed he might have been traveling toward Louisiana. 

After his arrest, Gillum was extradited to Louisiana and accused of violating the state's law against "terrorizing." The statute applies in circumstances involving an imminent or ongoing violent crime or a situation that poses an impending danger to human life.

A grand jury ultimately declined to indict Gillum.

Gillum's family had previously reported him missing in North Carolina. Following his release, family members took him to an out-of-state treatment facility, according to the Louisiana Attorney General's Office.

Crime and Public SafetyLouisianaU.S.