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CHIEFS TAKE LSU’S MANSOOR DELANE WITH SIXTH PICK SAINTS GET WR JORDYN TYSON WITH EIGHTH PICK 1C
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F r i d ay, a p r i l 24, 2026
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1 dead, 5 wounded in BR shooting Dispute between groups at mall turned violent, police say
BY ANDREA GALLO, AIDAN McCAHILL, PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER and JAN RISHER
between two groups of people in the food court escalated into violence, police said. Bystanders, including three AsStaff writers cension Episcopal School students from Lafayette who visited the One person was killed and five mall on their “senior skip day,” others injured Thursday as gunfire were struck by bullets in the crossrang out at the Mall of Louisiana fire. They and others were rushed in Baton Rouge when an argument to hospitals with injuries. By later
Thursday, law enforcement and hospital officials said one had died, another was in critical condition and the rest were stable. Law enforcement descended en masse to the mall after receiving the “shots fired” report at 1:22 p.m. Police initially warned at least one shooter was at large, and by late afternoon, they announced they
had taken five people into custody. By Thursday night, police said that while they had detained people involved, they had not officially made arrests yet. Authorities said they were still trying to piece together the argument that led to the shooting, but Baton Rouge Police Chief T.J. Morse said it “looks like guns were pulled after words exchanged.” “This was a disagreement, a fight between two groups of people that
we are still trying to unravel,” Morse said. “Unfortunately, innocent victims got caught in the crossfire.” After shots echoed through the food court and sirens began blaring outside, shoppers sprinted out of the mall. Some women donned nylon capes as they darted out of the JCPenney hair salon, their hair half-done. At the jewelry store
ä See SHOOTING, page 12A
THURSDAY @ JAZZ FEST
Raye shines
British singer-songwriter provides soulful kickoff of Jazz Fest BY KEITH SPERA Staff writer
The British singer-songwriter Raye, late at the 2026 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival’s Shell Gentilly Stage on Thursday, asked the big crowd to repeat “everything’s gonna be all right.” That wasn’t always certain. Earlier, she and her horn- and string-laden band vamped during “Skin & Bones” as she gave medical and security personnel time to attend to an audience member in distress. Troubling news from the outside world trickled in throughout the day. But music, and Jazz Fest, are ultimately about joy. Raye, whose personality was every bit as delightful as her big, tuxedo-and-white-tennis-shoes-wearing band, supplied plenty of it. She was nearly brought to tears when a couple in the audience got engaged. She promised to bring them onstage later when she sang “Where Is My Husband?” Which she did. The first of the 2026 Jazz Fest’s two four-day weekends opened at a sun-splashed Fair Grounds. The festival site has some new wrinkles, such as the six second-story “skybox” cabanas at the Shell Gentilly Stage. But even as terrible news trickled in from the outside world, Jazz Fest felt like Jazz Fest.
STAFF PHOTO By ENAN CHEDIAK
Raye performs on the Shell Gentilly Stage during the first day of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival at the ä See RAYE, page 14A Fair Grounds on Thursday.
Former officer planned mass shooting in N.O., police say He wanted to attack an unnamed event, report reveals
for New Orleans. Family said he’d made “recent threats to harm ‘Black people.’” By then, Christopher Gillum, 45, was already 700 miles into his BY JOHN SIMERMAN journey, on the Staff writer Gulf Coast of FlorPolice in Burlington, North Caro- ida, armed with a lina, sent out a disturbing bulletin handgun and a few Gillum Wednesday. A former police offi- hundred rounds cer from that region was missing, of ammunition, authorities said. potentially suicidal and headed He’d told a Florida sheriff’s offi-
WEATHER HIGH 84 LOW 70 PAGE 8B
cial who had stopped him earlier, before his alleged intentions were known, that he’d planned to reach the Crescent City on Thursday. Gillum never got that far before police and federal agents in three states orchestrated his arrest late Wednesday at a Destin, Florida, hotel. On Thursday, he was slated to be extradited to Louisiana to face state charges related to “terroristic threats” from an investigation led by the FBI and Louisiana State Police.
Sheriff’s officials in Okaloosa County, Florida, said that Gillum wanted to commit a mass shooting at an unnamed New Orleans festival, then die from police bullets. He didn’t name the festival, authorities said, but Thursday was opening day for the city’s biggest: the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Mayor Helena Moreno and Gov. Jeff Landry were among the officials heaping praise on law enforcement for successfully
Business ......................4D Commentary ................7B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................1E Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....5D-8D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
thwarting what was described as a potential mass killing, in a city that spent much of 2025 grappling with the Jan. 1 vehicle attack on Bourbon Street that left 14 New Year’s revelers dead. Louisiana State Police confirmed Thursday that a suspect was arrested as part of an ongoing investigation with the FBI. Following Gillum’s arrest, an FBI spokesperson declined to comment on the
ä See PLANNED, page 14A
13TH yEAR, NO. 255