{"id":243330,"date":"2026-04-23T14:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/243330\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T14:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:55:10","slug":"fugitive-accused-of-plotting-mass-shooting-at-new-orleans-festival-arrested-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/243330\/","title":{"rendered":"Fugitive accused of plotting mass shooting at New Orleans festival arrested in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">DESTIN, Fla. &#8211; A North Carolina man who reportedly threatened a mass shooting in New Orleans has been arrested in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/us\/fl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Christopher Gillum was wanted in Orleans Parish by the Department of Public Safety for terrorist threats.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Authorities said they learned that Gillum planned to travel to a festival in New Orleans to conduct a mass shooting and then commit suicide by cop.<\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/gillum-arrested-resized.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/> <\/p>\n<p data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\">Courtesy: Okaloosa County Sheriff&#8217;s Office <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Dig deeper:<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Deputies in Okaloosa County, Florida, received information that Gillum was in the area and investigators verified his presence through the county&#8217;s Flock camera system.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">According to the Okaloosa County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Gillum was taken into custody at a Destin hotel located on 1625 Scenic Highway 98 around 6:40 p.m. on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Deputies said they recovered a handgun and about 200 rounds of ammunition from his hotel room.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/christopher-gillum-mugshot.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/> <\/p>\n<p data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\">Courtesy: Okaloosa County Sheriff&#8217;s Office <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\">What we don&#8217;t know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">The motive behind the alleged mass shooting plot is unknown.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Authorities have not said what festival Gillum was allegedly targeting, but the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival starts on Thursday, April 23 and runs through May 3 and is expected to draw between 60,000 \u2013 70,000 people a day.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">&#8220;This disturbing case highlights how technology like FLOCK and strong partnerships between agencies can help prevent potential violence and bring wanted fugitives into custody safely before a tragedy could occur,&#8221; said Sheriff Eric Aden.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\">What&#8217;s next:<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Gillium is being held in the Okaloosa County jail and is awating extradition to Louisiana.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: This article was written with information posted on social media by the Okaloosa County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/us\/fl\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Florida<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/us\/la\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Louisiana<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DESTIN, Fla. &#8211; A North Carolina man who reportedly threatened a mass shooting in New Orleans has been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[630,47,28,30,29,7850,115,628],"class_list":["post-243330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-la","tag-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}