October 01, 2025
Doug Hood/Asbury Park Press; USA TODAY NETWORK
Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, located in Burlington and Ocean counties, was placed on lockdown Tuesday morning after a federal employee at the installation reported false information about an active shooter, authorities say.
A federal employee is in custody for allegedly staging an "active shooter hoax" that prompted a lockdown Tuesday morning at New Jersey's Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, one of the nation's largest military bases, the state's acting U.S. attorney said.
The lockdown at the U.S. military base in Burlington and Ocean counties started just before 11 a.m. A Facebook post from the base urged all personnel at the facility to seek shelter. The lockdown was lifted just before noon, and the base later said it had received a report of an active shooter at the military installation.
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Acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba posted on X on Tuesday night that "false information" had been provided to the base by a civilian employee of the federal government. In a criminal complaint filed in federal court, the suspect in custody was later identified as Malika Brittingham, a U.S. Navy employee assigned to work at the base.
Charging documents say Brittingham sent a text message to an unnamed person around 10:15 a.m. warning of an active shooter, CBS News reported. Brittingham claimed to have heard five or six shots fired and said she was hiding in a closet with her co-workers, prosecutors allege. The recipient of the text message then notified the base's operation center and called 911, leading to the lockdown and an emergency response at the facility.
"This kind of senseless fear-mongering and disruption will not be tolerated in my state," Habba said.
Brittingham allegedly admitted to investigators that she sent the text message because she had been "ostracized by her co-workers" at the base and hoped fabricating an active shooter situation "would allow them to 'trauma bond'" over the experience.
Brittingham is charged with knowingly conveying false and misleading information related to the use of firearms at a federal facility.
Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is the nation's only military base with service from the Air Force, Army and Navy. The installation spans about 42,000 acres.
"Our priority is the safety and security of everyone on the installation," Col. Michael Stefanovic, the commander at the base, said in a statement. "We worked closely with local law enforcement and emergency responders to ensure the situation was investigated and resolved as quickly as possible."
