Navy Worker Fakes Active Shooter Sighting on N.J. Military Base To ‘Trauma Bond’ With Co-Workers Who Froze Her Out
The suspect triggered a lockdown at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, hoping chaos would fix her relationship with colleagues.
The person responsible for the recent shutdown of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey called in a fake active shooter incident on the military base because she wanted to “trauma bond” with her colleagues.
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday night charged Malika Brittingham, a U.S. Navy employee, with deliberately providing false information about an active shooter at the base. Her actions triggered an hour-long lockdown and caused multiple nearby schools to implement shelter-in-place protocols.
According to a complaint filed with the U.S. District Court at Trenton, Ms. Brittingham texted an unidentified person mid-morning on Tuesday and claimed that she had heard gunshots and was hiding in a closet with her co-workers. The person who received her message called 911, which triggered the lockdown of the base for nearly an hour before it was determined to be a false alarm.
Investigators tracked down Ms. Brittingham at her office just before noon and quickly found discrepancies in her story. She initially claimed she’d sent her text messages after the lockdown began, but authorities had the timestamps.
When confronted with the evidence, she cracked, saying she sent the texts hoping someone would call 911 and trigger a police response.
Ms. Brittingham, assigned to the U.S. Navy Warfare Center in Maryland but working at the New Jersey base, had been frozen out by her colleagues. According to the complaint, she orchestrated the entire hoax in hopes the chaos of an active shooter scare would help them “trauma bond” over their shared experience.
U.S. Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst spans across 42,000 acres at central New Jersey, housing a unified facility that serves Air Force, Army, and Navy operations. The base supports a population of more than 40,000 people, including active-duty personnel, their families, and civilian staff.
The incident occurred as senior military officials were assembled at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. Secretary Pete Hegseth had called the worldwide gathering to outline Trump administration objectives, including his announcement that the military would move away from what he characterized as “woke” policies.
