A civilian U.S. Department of Navy employee was charged with falsely reporting an active shooter at a New Jersey military base on Tuesday morning — a hoax she allegedly carried out to “trauma bond” with her colleagues, according to a criminal complaint.
On Tuesday, the official Facebook page for Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst outside Trenton reported the base was on lockdown due to an active shooter. About an hour later, the lockdown was lifted — and authorities later said the initial reports were unfounded.
According to the criminal complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, the civilian employee, Malika Brittingham, texted an unnamed individual at about 10:15 a.m. Tuesday, that she allegedly heard five to six gunshots and that she, along with her colleagues, were hiding in a closet.
Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst near Trenton, N.J.
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Believing her statement to be true, the person she texted then called the Base Defense Operations Center and 911, relaying what Brittingham allegedly said and leading to active shooter notification to be sent out to the base’s entire workforce, according to the complaint.
Later, when authorities determined there was, in fact, no active shooter, they interviewed Brittingham, who initially told investigators she only sent the text message about the shooting after she received the emergency notification, the complaint stated.
Authorities later reviewed the timing of the calls to both the Base Defense Operations Center and 911 and the timing of the emergency notification and “proved that this statement was not true,” the complaint stated.
At that point, Brittingham admitted to making up the active shooter threat, according to the complaint.
Brittingham “explained that she carried out this hoax because she had been ostracized by her co-workers and hoped that their shared experience in response to an active shooter would allow them to ‘trauma bond,'” according to the complaint.
Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba said the employee’s alleged conduct won’t be tolerated.
“This kind of senseless fear-mongering and disruption will not be tolerated in my state,” Habba said in a post on X. “After everything this country has gone through, especially in light of current events, I will be sure to bring down the hammer of the law for anyone found guilty of creating unnecessary panic and undermining public trust.”
There was no contact information for Brittingham immediately available, and it wasn’t clear if she had an attorney
