Civilian Navy employee charged with reporting false active shooter on New Jersey military base

A civilian U.S. Division of Navy worker was charged with falsely reporting an lively shooter at a New Jersey navy base on Tuesday morning — a hoax she allegedly carried out to “trauma bond” together with her colleagues, in response to a prison criticism.

On Tuesday, the official Fb web page for Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst exterior Trenton reported the bottom was on lockdown resulting from an lively shooter. About an hour later, the lockdown was lifted — and authorities later stated the preliminary studies had been unfounded. 

In line with the prison criticism, filed in U.S. District Court docket in New Jersey, the civilian worker, Malika Brittingham, texted an unnamed particular person at about 10:15 a.m. Tuesday, that she allegedly heard 5 to 6 gunshots and that she, alongside together with her colleagues, had been hiding in a closet.

Believing her assertion to be true, the individual she texted then known as the Base Protection Operations Heart and 911, relaying what Brittingham allegedly stated and resulting in lively shooter notification to be despatched out to the bottom’s whole workforce, in response to the criticism.

Later, when authorities decided there was, in truth, no lively shooter, they interviewed Brittingham, who initially informed investigators she solely despatched the textual content message in regards to the taking pictures after she obtained the emergency notification, the criticism acknowledged.

Authorities later reviewed the timing of the calls to each the Base Protection Operations Heart and 911 and the timing of the emergency notification and “proved that this assertion was not true,” the criticism acknowledged.

At that time, Brittingham admitted to creating up the lively shooter menace, in response to the criticism.

Brittingham “defined that she carried out this hoax as a result of she had been ostracized by her co-workers and hoped that their shared expertise in response to an lively shooter would enable them to ‘trauma bond,'” in response to the criticism. 

Interim U.S. Legal professional for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba stated the worker’s alleged conduct will not be tolerated. 

“This sort of mindless fear-mongering and disruption won’t be tolerated in my state,” Habba stated in a publish on X. “After every part this nation has gone by means of, particularly in gentle of present occasions, I’ll you’ll want to convey down the hammer of the legislation for anybody discovered responsible of making pointless panic and undermining public belief.”

There was no contact data for Brittingham instantly accessible, and it wasn’t clear if she had an legal professional