Authorities say a man suspected of planning a mass shooting at a large New Orleans festival was arrested at a Florida hotel with a handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
The event was not named, but the New Orleans jazz and heritage festival, commonly known as JazzFest, runs from Thursday through 3 May. The gathering celebrates Louisiana’s music, food and culture, and attracted about 460,000 people last year, organizers said.
The suspect, from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was wanted “by the Department of Public Safety for terroristic threats”, the Okaloosa county sheriff’s office posted online on Thursday. It said federal authorities had identified the alleged threat, without naming the agency. The FBI office in New Orleans did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Okaloosa sheriff’s office said the man was arrested without incident on Wednesday night at a hotel in Destin, in the Florida Panhandle. Deputies recovered a handgun and about 200 rounds of ammunition from the hotel room, the statement said.
The Fox TV station reported that the man was named Christopher Gillum and lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he had been a police officer. The station said that Alex Carrasquillo, communications manager for Chapel Hill, said Gillum has been employed as an officer there from 2004 to 2019.
The sheriff’s office “was contacted by federal authorities in reference to a male from North Carolina being in our jurisdiction while reportedly heading to do a mass shooting at a large festival in Louisiana”, the agency posted online.
The man was arrested as a fugitive from justice and will be extradited to Louisiana to face charges there, the sheriff’s office said. It was not immediately known if he had a lawyer.
Trooper Danny Berrincha, a Louisiana state police spokesperson, said the agency is still investigating the episode with the FBI.
“At this time, there are no known direct threats to any festivals in Louisiana,” he added.
“Job well done!” said Helena Moreno, the mayor of New Orleans, adding that the “coordination extended to law enforcement agencies in multiple states from North Carolina to Florida”.
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