Villanova University confirms active shooter ‘cruel hoax’ amid orientation events, FBI investigating
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Villanova University officials confirmed a “cruel hoax” led administrators to send out an active shooter alert Thursday, urging students and staff to lock and barricade doors.
The Pennsylvania school’s Department of Public Safety received an anonymous report of an active shooter in the Charles Widger School of Law at about 4:30 p.m., a university spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
An alert warning of a possible shooter on campus interrupted the annual freshman orientation mass where parents were saying goodbye to their kids.
At a press conference, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer described the hoax unfolding as “every parent’s nightmare.”
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“You’re sending your kid off sometimes for their first day… and you get an alert. That’s why we took this so seriously,” he said.
David Tedjeske, Villanova’s Associate Vice President of Public Safety and Chief of Police also confirmed that the initial report suggested that the shooter came with “an automatic rifle.”
Villanova President Peter Donohue described the incident as a “cruel hoax.”
“There was no active shooter, no injuries and no evidence of firearms present on campus,” Donohue wrote in a statement to Fox News.
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He thanked local police and staff for their response to the situation and apologized to first-year students and their families for the frightening start to the school year.
Videos posted to social media appeared to show people scattered at an outdoor event.
The event at the private Catholic university drew hundreds of parents and students.
Freshman Kyle Mezrow recalled the chaos as he saw police rushing toward the scene.
“I heard people saying they were ‘victims’ after I saw officers running up with AR-15s, rifles, sprinting up a stairwell. It was pretty surreal… at first shock and confusion, then quickly turned into an oh my God, that just happened,” he said.
Mezrow later added, “It’s infuriating, it really is. It’s absolutely disgusting… I really am just absolutely appalled by the whole situation.”
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The incident is now under investigation by the FBI, the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office, and Radnor Township Police Department.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro described the event as a “swatting incident,” when someone calls in a fake threat to induce panic.
“Swatting is illegal,” Shapiro wrote in a statement on X. “I’ve directed [Pennsylvania State Police] to work alongside their partners and use every tool at our disposal to find the person or people who called in this fake threat and hold them accountable.”
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Stollsteimer said a forensic team and the FBI are “using every tool” to trace the call.
Shapiro confirmed a large state and federal response, including the Pennsylvania State Police and the ATF’s Philadelphia Field Division.
The university gave an all-clear at about 6:30 p.m., lifting a shelter in place.
Villanova University is a private Catholic college located in Villanova, about 30 minutes outside Philadelphia.
Villanova University Police, Radnor Police Department and the Deleware County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to inquiries from Fox News Digital.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said it was not involved.
The incident comes weeks after an active shooter was reported Aug. 8 near Emory University’s campus in Atlanta.
Gunman Patrick Joseph White, 30, took his own life after allegedly killing DeKalb County police Officer David Rose, 33.
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White is accused of shooting hundreds of rounds into six CDC buildings, though no employees were injured.
This was the second shooting hoax reported at a U.S. college on the same day, following another incident at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga campus.
Subsequent alerts from the university urged students and staff to move to a secure location and stay clear of Law School Scarpa Hall.