‘No credible threat’ to Naval Academy as rumor of shooter sends campus into lockdown

Online threat from former midshipman reportedly prompted police lockdown

There is no “credible threat” at this time to the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland, according to state officials, after the service academy and a nearby base went on lockdown Thursday evening amid rumors of a gunman on campus.

“In working with local, state, and federal law enforcement authorities, there is currently no credible threat to the Naval Academy,” the Maryland governor’s office told WBAL.

The waterside campus went on lockdown earlier in the day, after a midshipman who had been thrown out of the academy made anonymous threats on social media using an IP address to suggest he was on campus, according to unofficial media reports.

Amid rumors on campus and early media reports that an armed gunman was at the academy and impersonating a police officer, a midshipman sheltering at the academy thought a law enforcement officer was a threat and hit the officer with a training weapon, unnamed sources told NBC Washington.

An member of law enforcement then fired a weapon at the midshipman in an “accidental discharge,” sending the individual to the hospital with a likely non-fatal shoulder injury, 7News reports, citing unnamed sources.

Naval Academy went on lockdown Thursday as military and police responded to reports of threat against premier service academy (WBALTV)

An individual on campus was seen being loaded on a gurney into a Maryland State Police helicopter.

Midshipman were given a security update late Thursday that rumors of an active shooter impersonating law enforcement on campus were false, Fox 5 reports.

The lockdown came the same day police responded to a bomb threat ultimately deemed non-credible against the Democratic National Committee headquarters in nearby Washington, D.C., and a day after an unknown gunman assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah. A “hoax” shooting threat prompted a mass police response at Villanova University last month.

"Naval Support Activity Annapolis, in coordination with local law enforcement, is currently responding to reports of threats made to the Naval Academy,” the Naval Academy wrote earlier in the day on Facebook. “The base is on lockdown out of an abundance of caution. This is a developing situation and we will provide updates as they become available."

Campus sources told Fox News that shots were fired inside Bancroft Hall, a large student dormitory.

Campus sources told news outlets threat came from disgruntled midshipman returning to campus with weapon (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Captain David S. Forman, the school’s deputy commandant, said in an email obtained by the The New York Times there had been no confirmed reports of gunfire.

An academy midshipman warned colleagues at 5:32 p.m. to “get inside and lock your door right now,” according to emails shared with The New York Times.

“Not a drill,” the message reads. “Get inside and lock your door.”

Aerial news footage showed police officers with long guns and body armor running outside a campus building.

“I’m very nervous,” Courtney Strauss-Campbell, a mother whose son was inside the Naval Academy on Thursday, told Fox 5 DC.

She said her son had heard a shooter was inside Bancroft Hall, but that he doesn’t “know if it’s a hoax or if it’s real.”

The Independent has contacted the Naval Academy and Naval Support Activity Annapolis base for comment.

An official with the Annapolis Police Department declined to immediately comment, and said he was heading to the scene.

The Maryland State Police are assisting with the response, an official told The Independent.