Several colleges and universities in the United States, including Pope Leo's alma mater Villanova University, got false reports of shootings meant to trigger a law enforcement response.
Many colleges and universities in the United States have had the same terrifying experience over the last week: A detailed report of an active shooter triggers a campus-wide lockdown, police presence, and terror among students.
Word spreads online, prayers are offered — and then the entire event is revealed as a hoax. There never was a shooter, gun, or any shots fired.
Villanova University, a Catholic Augustinian university located in Pennsylvania and Pope Leo XIV's alma mater, was the first school to receive a false report of an active shooter on campus.
The false report on Thursday, August 21, disrupted the opening Mass during student orientation. Police received reports of an active shooter with an "AR-15 style weapon" on campus, and gunshots were heard in the back of the police call.
The campus was locked down as terrified students fled the scene and shared updates on social media about various safety alerts being sent from the university.
"Just keep me in your thoughts. I'm very scared," one student posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, while hiding.
Villanova President Fr. Peter Donohue, OSA, emailed students about two hours later saying campus was safe and no shots had been fired.
“Today, as we are celebrating Orientation Mass to welcome our newest Villanovans and their families to our community, panic and terror ensued,” said Fr. Donohue.
He continued, "Mercifully, no one was injured, and we now know that it was a cruel hoax — there was no active shooter, no injuries and no evidence of firearms present on campus."
On Sunday, August 24, Villanova received a second, false, report of an active shooter on campus.
Since August 21, about a dozen schools across the country have been subjected to these fake reports of an active shooter, known as "swatting."
These include both large state universities and small private schools.
A prank with deadly consequences
The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) website defines swatting as "a malicious act that can involve placing false emergency calls to emergency responders, often reporting a (false) severe, ongoing crisis at a specific location. The goal of swatting is to provoke a significant law enforcement response, creating chaos and potentially resulting in violence."
Swatting, said the DHS, is dangerous for a multitude of reasons. The response can result in "unnecessary law enforcement confrontations or use of force against unsuspecting individuals"; foster mistrust of law enforcement due to "repeated false alarms"; and waste taxpayer money from responding to fake reports.
Additionally, swatting occasionally has deadly consequences.
In 2017, a man in Wichita, Kansas, was shot and killed by police responding to a false report. The report claimed that a man had killed his father and was holding the rest of his family at gunpoint. This is believed to be the first "swatting" death in the United States.
The victim, 28-year-old Andrew Finch, was not the intended target of the "swatting" incident; rather, he lived at the address formerly occupied by the target. The swatting incident began over a conflict during a video game.
