Federal employee taken into custody following “active shooter hoax” at NJ’s largest military base

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A federal government employee was taken into custody Tuesday following an “active shooter hoax” that plunged New Jersey’s largest military base into lockdown earlier in the day, according to the state’s acting U.S. attorney, Alina Habba.

In a social media post Tuesday night, Habba said the civilian employee — who has not been named — was in custody for “conveying false information regarding an active shooter at Joint Base McGuire.”

That sprawling base, among the nation’s largest military installations, was placed under lockdown Tuesday morning.

A statement on the base’s Facebook page urged all personnel to shelter in place. The statement did not describe the nature of the threat. The lockdown was lifted just before noon, a little under an hour after it was announced.

Habba’s statement did not elaborate on the employee’s alleged actions, but it described the person, in an all-caps statement, as a “suspects in…today’s active shooter hoax.”

An e-mailed inquiry to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey was not immediately returned.

“This kind of senseless fear-mongering and disruption will not be tolerated in my state,” Habba added. “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.”

The U.S. Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is one of the nation’s largest military installations. It spans 42,000 acres (17,000 hectares) and combines Air Force, Army and Navy functions and counts over 42,000 service members, relatives and civilian employees.

The base is about 18 miles (29 kilometers) south of Trenton, the state capital, and about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Philadelphia.

The incident unfolded Tuesday as U.S. military leaders were gathered at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had summoned them from around the world to hear him declare an end to “woke” culture in the armed forces.

It comes after recent violence at military installations in recent years.

Last month, an Army sergeant was charged with shooting five fellow soldiers at a Georgia base. Other shootings have ranged from individual disputes between service members to assaults on bases to mass-casualty attacks, such as the 2009 shooting, by an Army psychiatrist, that killed 13 people at Texas’ Ford Hood.