Former police officer arrested over alleged mass shooting plot at Louisiana festival
Christopher Gillum is seen in this undated police handout. (Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office)
(DESTIN, Fla.) — A former police officer who allegedly was traveling to Louisiana to conduct a mass shooting at a large festival was arrested Wednesday night in a Florida hotel where investigators found a gun and nearly 200 rounds of ammunition, authorities said.
Christopher Gillum, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was wanted by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety “for terroristic threats” and was arrested at a hotel in Destin, Florida, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Thursday.
“Authorities obtained information Gillum planned to travel to a festival in New Orleans to conduct a mass shooting and then commit suicide by cop,” the sheriff’s office said.
When officers arrested Gillum, they recovered a handgun and approximately 200 rounds of ammunition from his hotel room, the sheriff’s office alleged.
Attorney information for the suspect was not immediately available.
Gillum was a Chapel Hill Police officer from 2004 until 2019, when he resigned, a spokesman for the town of Chapel Hill said in a statement.
“He returned as a non-sworn employee in 2024 before leaving for another job by the end of that year,” Alex Carrasquillo, the town’s spokesman, said in a statement.
Gillum was being held in a Florida jail and awaiting extradition to Louisiana, the sheriff’s office said.
The Louisiana State Police did not say which festival the suspect was allegedly targeting, but said in a statement Thursday that “there are no known direct threats to any festivals in Louisiana.”
The state police will be conducting the ongoing investigation with the FBI, according to the department.
An ABC News graphic from Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, on the expected winter storm. (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — A highly impactful and potentially historic nor’easter is expected to quickly strengthen as it collects itself offshore near Delaware, Maryland and Virginia on Sunday, leading to major and potentially extreme impacts for millions along the I-95 corridor.
More than 50 million Americans were on alert on Sunday morning for winter storm conditions beginning later Sunday and continuing into Monday.
Blizzard warnings are in effect for more than 35 million Americans from Cape Charles, Virginia, to Dover, Delaware, up to the I-95 corridor from Philadelphia to Boston for increased confidence in snowfall of more than a foot and gusty winds that will likely cause blizzard conditions. The entire states of Delaware, New Jersey and Rhode Island were included.
Winter storm warnings were in effect for parts of central Virginia and Maryland, east-central Pennsylvania, southern New York, northern Connecticut, west-central Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire and Vermont, and southern Maine for increased confidence of snowfall.
Some areas are expecting about 6 inches, while some areas may potentially see more than a foot, as well as gusty winds that will likely cause blowing snow and whiteout conditions.
Those conditions could hit major cities, including Baltimore; Harrisburg and Scranton, Pennsylvania; Albany, New York; Hartford, Connecticut; Concord, New Hampshire; and Portland, Maine.
On Sunday afternoon, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a disaster declaration ahead of the evening’s storm, saying it will allow “our state agencies have every resource they need to prepare and keep people safe.”
Shapiro asked people to stay off the roads and stressed that people should take the storm seriously and seriously and stay inside.
Conditions are expected to begin to worsen in the Philadelphia area later today, the governor said.
New York City and Philadelphia were under a blizzard warning for total snowfall reaching between 12 and more than 18 inches, with potential winds gusting up to 55+ mph, causing whiteout conditions and difficult-to-impossible travel conditions later Sunday through Monday.
New York City hasn’t been under a blizzard warning since March 2017, close to a decade ago. The last such warning for Philadelphia was in January 2016, more than a decade ago.
“The snow is back,” New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on social media early on Sunday. “But New York is ready.”
At a press conference later Sunday afternoon, Mamdani announced a state of emergency for the city and a travel ban beginning at 9 p.m. Sunday and ending at 12 p.m. Monday. New York City schools will also be closed Monday, Mamdani said.
According to the National Weather Service, this is the first time that all of New Jersey has been under a blizzard warning since January 1996.
The entire state of Delaware is under a blizzard warning for the first time since Feb. 10, 2010, more than 15 years ago, according to the National Weather Service.
More than 7,400 flights have been canceled for Sunday and Monday, according to flight tracker FlightAware. Over half of all flights at John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports have already been canceled ahead of the storm.
Airports in Newark, Boston, Philadelphia, D.C. and Baltimore have also seen significant cancellations. Between 88% and 93% of flights scheduled for Monday at New York airports and in Boston have been canceled as of noon Sunday.
Coastal Flood alerts were also up from coastal Delaware, Maryland and Virginia to the Jersey Shore, as well as from Long Island to the coast of southern and eastern New England for minor to moderate coastal flooding during high tide.
Crime scene barrier tape (Getty Images/Tetra Images)
(BATON ROUGE, La.) — A 17-year-old girl, Martha Odom, has been identified as the victim killed in a shooting at the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge, officials said Friday, and a 17-year-old suspect is in custody.
Five others were wounded when gunfire broke out during a fight between two groups in the food court on Thursday afternoon, police said.
One of the injured, a 43-year-old man, remains in the hospital in critical condition, Baton Rouge Police Chief T.J. Morse said.
Lafayette’s Ascension Episcopal School described Odom, a senior at the school, as a “joyful presence whose kindness and infectious enthusiasm brought light to all who knew her.”
The school said two students were wounded and two others were witnesses.
One suspect in the shooting, 17-year-old Markel Lee, turned himself in on Friday, and faces charges including first-degree murder and multiple counts of attempted murder, Morse said at a news conference.
Morse said police are asking for the public’s help to find a second suspect wanted in connection with the shooting.
The five people detained on Thursday have been released pending further investigation, Morse said.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry called the shooting a “deeply troubling act of violence” that appears to have been driven by “neighborhood gang disputes that seem to want to spill out in our public places, putting innocent people in danger and taking the life of an innocent young lady.”
“This conduct is not going to be tolerated in this state,” he said at the news conference.
An employee at the mall at the time of the shooting told ABC Baton Rouge affiliate WBRZ, “I heard a loud ‘pop’ and then another ‘pop.’ … I turn around and I see people dropping to the floor and then I saw the gun. … And he was turning around, shooting randomly.”
“I called security and said, ‘Shots fired in the food court, people are down, people are hit.’ And then the cops came and it was just total chaos … blood was everywhere,” she said.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” she said.
The Mall of Louisiana is closed on Friday “out of respect for the victims.”
“Our deepest sympathies are with everyone who was impacted by the senseless act of violence that took place here today,” the mall said in a statement.
Rep. Norma Torres holds up a photo of Minnesota shooting victim Alex Pretti who was killed during an immigration enforcement operation during U.S. President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address during a Joint Session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump did not mention their names in his speech, but Alex Pretti and Renee Good loomed over the State of the Union address.
Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, and Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, were both fatally shot in January by federal law enforcement deployed to Minneapolis during the Trump administration’s “Operation Metro Surge” immigration crackdown.
While the deaths of Good, who was killed on Jan. 7, and Pretti, who was killed on Jan. 24, were captured on video and garnered national attention, the president did not broach the subject of their demise.
But some Democrats attending the State of the Union attempted to invoke their names during Trump’s hour-and-48-minute speech.
During the address, Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., held up photos of Pretti and Good that included a caption in all capital letters, reading, “PREMEDITATED MURDER.”
Trump has previously lamented the deaths of Good and Pretti and instituted a drawdown in federal law enforcement in Minneapolis in the wake of their deaths.
During his speech Tuesday, the president blamed the Democrats for the current partial government shutdown stemming from an impasse over immigration enforcement. Funding for the Department of Homeland Security ran out on Feb. 14.
“Now they have closed the agency responsible for protecting Americans from terrorists and murderers,” Trump said of the Democrats. “Tonight, I’m demanding the full and immediate restoration of all funding for the border security, homeland security of the United States, and also for helping people clean up their snow.”
At one point, Trump prompted heckling from Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., when he said the Democrats should be “ashamed.”
“One of the great things about the State of the Union is how it gives Americans the chance to see clearly what their representatives really believe,” Trump said in his speech. “So, tonight I’m inviting every legislator to join with my administration in reaffirming a fundamental principle. If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support: the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
While it appeared that all of the Republican lawmakers in the chamber stood up and applauded, most of the Democrats remained seated.
While seated next to each other, Omar and Tlaib repeatedly shouted at Trump. Omar was heard yelling, “You have killed Americans! You have killed Americans!” in an apparent reference to the deaths of Good and Pretti.
Tlaib shouted “liar” and referenced the Epstein files.
The barbs from Tlaib and Omar continued as Trump said, “I’m also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens, in many cases, drug lords, murderers, all over our country. They’re blocking the removal of these people out of our country. And you should be ashamed of yourself.”
During her rebuttal address for the Democrats, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said the nation’s “broken immigration system is something to be fixed — not an excuse for unaccountable agents to terrorize our communities.”
“And yet, our president has sent poorly trained federal agents into our cities, where they have arrested and detained American citizens and people who aspire to be Americans — and they have done it without a warrant,” Spanberger said.
She added, “They have ripped nursing mothers away from their babies, they have sent children — a little boy in a blue bunny hat — to far-off detention centers, and they have killed American citizens on our streets.”
In a statement released immediately after the State of the Union, Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., also mentioned the killings of Good and Pretti.
“Here in Minnesota, we have seen what happens when President Trump gets his way and a Republican majority in Congress goes along,” McCollum said. “We’ve seen the damage from masked, unidentifiable federal agents invading and occupying our communities to sow chaos, violence, and division. We’ve seen Minnesotans racially profiled and assaulted. We’ve seen the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents.”
