Fake shooter threat at U.S. Naval Academy leads to real shooting in resulting confusion

One person was injured in a shooting Thursday in an apparent misunderstanding at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis that grew out of a false active-shooter threat.

A memo from the Naval Academy commandant, which was obtained by The Washington Times, blamed the shooting on an anonymous threat on Yodel that “was traced to the IP address of an issued laptop” of a midshipman who’d recently been thrown out of the Academy but was confirmed to be in his parents’ home in the Midwest.

“No active shooter is believed to have been on the yard,” the commandant’s memo said.

But that threat led the Academy to be put on lockdown as a precaution and the resulting hair-trigger behavior led to a near-fatal mistake.

According to the memo, the “active shooter” was believed to have been posing as law enforcement.

That “misinformation” led one unidentified midshipman to mistake actual law enforcement for the gunman.

“Midshipman clubbed base security in the head with his parade rifle, [and then] was shot in the arm,” the commandant stated.

A MedEvac helicopter landed at the academy after 6 p.m., and Fox News showed authorities taking an injured person on a wheeled stretcher to the helicopter.

The commandant’s memo said both parties are in stable condition.

Other midshipmen were barricaded in their rooms during the lockdown. Numerous emergency vehicles responded to the vicinity of Bancroft Hall, the huge dorm where roughly 4,000 midshipmen reside.

Hours after the shooting, some personnel were still sheltering in place and social media was flooded with reports of an active shooter.

“Everyone is safe, the yard is undergoing a final sweep,” the Academy’s memo stated.

The memo said the hoax threat “is a part of multiple false reports of active shooters today across the nation.”

The FBI is investigating, the commandant’s memo said.