‘A cruel hoax’: Active shooting reported at Villanova University campus not real, says president

VILLANOVA, Pa. (AP) — A report of a shooter on Villanova University’s campus was a “cruel hoax,” the school’s president said Thursday.

“There was no active shooter, no injuries and no evidence of firearms on campus,” the Rev. Peter M. Donohue said in an emailed statement.

Earlier in the afternoon, a text from the Villanova alert system instructed students to get to secure locations and lock and barricade all doors. A second alert from campus officials warned the community 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, some students abandoning their backpacks as they fled.

In another video purportedly showing the scene, someone can be heard yelling “Go, go,” as students fled, leaving folding chairs set up for an event on a campus lawn toppled and strewn about.

New student orientation and registration started Thursday and is scheduled to go until Saturday. Classes begin Monday.

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.

The hoax made its way to top state officials, too.

State Rep. Lisa Borowski, whose district includes Villanova, said earlier that she’d also received a alert from Radnor Township Police and Villanova campus police.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, meanwhile, said in a statement that Pennsylvania State Police were joining local and federal law enforcement onsite at Villanova. Shapiro urged all at the university to “avoid the area and follow the direction of local authorities.”

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.

According to the university website, the campus enrollment includes 6,700 full-time undergraduate students and 3,100 graduate & law students.

Pope Leo XIV, the first Pope from the United States, is a Villanova alumnus from the Class of 1977, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.