A federal employee has been accused of forcing a military base into lockdown by creating an elaborate shooter hoax, according to a criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors.
The document states that Malika Brittingham faked the shooting because she wanted to “trauma bond” with her colleagues.
At the time, she was stationed at U.S. Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, which is used by the Army, Navy and the Air Force.
Brittingham’s alleged plan began when she allegedly sent a text message to a friend, in which she claimed a shooter was on the base at 10.14am.
She also claimed that she had heard five or six shots and that she was hiding in a closet with her co-workers.
Her friend quickly contacted both the base’s operation centre and local authorities, plunging the base into lockdown at 11am.
The base reopened an hour later after authorities uncovered that there had never been a shooter at the site.
Brittingham was interviewed by police at 11.46am and initially claimed that she sent the text after the lockdown order had been given.
However, according to the complaint, she later admitted that she had sent the texts because she felt that she had “ostracized by her co-workers and hoped that their shared experience in response to an active shooter would allow them to ‘trauma bond’.”
Brittingham, who normally works for the Naval Air Warfare Center in Maryland, faces counts of knowingly conveying false and misleading information related to the use of firearms at a federal facility.
Alina Habba, the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, said on social media that the incident will “not be tolerated.”
“This kind of senseless fear-mongering and disruption will not be tolerated in my state,”
“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,” she wrote.
The lockdown came just hours before U.S. military leaders gathered in Quantico, Virginia, for an address by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth told leaders that he wanted to end “woke” and “politically correct” policies in the military.
He also announced that he would end gender-neutral training standards in the army, even if that means “no women qualify for some combat jobs.”
The secretary for war handed over to Donald Trump, who threatened using the U.S. military to crush dissent in cities across the country.
“We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military – national guard, but military – because we’re going into Chicago very soon, that’s a big city with an incompetent governor,” he said.
He also praised Barack Obama’s ability to walk down stairs without using the bannister and repeatedly spoke about the “n-word,” meaning “nuclear.”
“We can’t let people throw around that word. I call it the N-word. There are two N-words, and you can’t use either of them,” he said.
