Villanova says a report of a campus shooter was a ‘cruel hoax’

VILLANOVA, Pa. (AP) — A report of a shooter on Villanova University’s campus that sparked panic among students and drew a heavy police presence was a “cruel hoax,” the school’s president said Thursday.

Earlier in the afternoon, students had received a text from the Villanova alert system that told them to lock and barricade doors and move to secure locations. A second alert from Villanova officials warned people to stay away from the law school.

Radnor Township police posted on social media at about 5:45 p.m. that police were clearing buildings but said “at this time, there are NO reported victims.” They told people who were sheltering in place to remain where they were until an officer contacted them.

But the Rev. Peter M. Donohue said in a statement to the school community that there was no active shooter and that no one had been injured. He praised the law enforcement response and acknowledged that today’s events “have shaken our entire community.”

“Today, as we are celebrating Orientation Mass to welcome our newest Villanovans and their families to our community, panic and terror ensued with the news of a possible shooter at the Law School,” Donohue wrote. “Mercifully, no one was injured and we now know it was a cruel hoax.”

The initial report sent police scouring the campus in search of the shooter and even had some law enforcement officials suggesting they believed there was a shooter.

Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer earlier told WPVI-TV that they were “still trying to get the situation under control.”

“We believe there is a shooter,” he said. “He’s in one of these buildings. Law enforcement for the entire tri-state area is here. And we are going door to door, room to room if we have to, to take this situation under control and to make this campus safe.”

Videos posted on social media showed a crowd being rushed inside a building on campus. New student orientation and registration started Thursday and is scheduled to go until Saturday. Classes begin Monday.

Aerial scenes showed several emergency vehicles on the scene and armed officers milling about at the entrance of a parking garage. Law enforcement vehicles were also lined up at the entrance to campus.

Brandon Ambrosino, a professor of theology and ethics at Villanova who was not on campus at the time, said most faculty members were not on campus, but students moved in on Wednesday. He said he and colleagues were struggling to find information about the active shooter during the chaotic afternoon.

“None of my colleagues know what’s happening. We’re messaging back and forth,” Ambrosino said.

Courtenay Harris Bond was walking near the law school with her husband and her son, a freshman, when word spread of the supposed shooting.

“Really tough way to start freshman year at college,” she said shortly after being given the all-clear to leave the bookstore where the family spent the lockdown.

Villanova University is a private Catholic university in the Philadelphia suburbs. It borders Lower Merion Township and Radnor Township at the center of the city’s wealthy Main Line neighborhoods.

The Augustinian school got extra attention this year as the alma mater of new Pope Leo XIV.