Base Employee Caused Active Shooter Hoax To 'Trauma Bond' With Co-Workers, Feds Say

JOINT BASE McGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, NJ — A civilian employee who felt ostracized by her co-workers reported a fake active shooter on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst to "trauma bond" with her co-workers, according to a federal complaint.

Malika Brittingham, who works for the U.S. Navy, was charged Tuesday night in federal court with knowingly and willfully conveying false information about an active shooter at the base, leading to a lockdown that lasted about an hour and prompted several schools to shelter in place.

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Trenton, alleges Brittingham texted a person identified only as "Individual 1" at 10:14 a.m. saying she had heard five or six gunshots and was hiding in a closet with her co-workers at the base.

The person who received the texts called 911 and relayed what Brittingham had said, and law enforcement was contacted and the lockdown put in place. It was lifted when investigators determined there was no active shooter on the base. Read more: All Clear, Lockdown Over At Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst

At 11:46 a.m., investigators found Brittingham at her workplace on the base and interviewed her, and though she initially claimed she sent her text messages after the lockdown order was issued, authorities determined she had sent them before and confronted Brittingham, who admitted sending the texts hoping the person would call 911 and initiate a law enforcement response.

Brittingham, who is assigned to the U.S. Navy Warfare Center in Patuxent River in Maryland but physically works at the Joint Base in New Jersey, "explained that she carried out this hoax because she had been ostracized by her co-workers and hoped that their shared experience in response to an active shooter would allow them to 'trauma bond,' " the complaint says.

Brittingham's age and hometown were not immediately available.

The case is assigned to U.S. Magistrate Brendan Day, according to the complaint.