Скачать или смотреть Villanova University visitors felt frustrated after a false report of a campus shooter

(22 Aug 2025)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4598423

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Villanova, Pennsylvania - 21 August 2025
1. Police officer placing a gun inside police car
2. Wide of campus, cars driving, police cars on scene
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Neville Tapper, father of Villanova University student:
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
"Well, I came here with my wife to drop my daughter off for college. This is her second day. Yesterday was moving, and today is actually the first day where everybody gets to meet, you know, counselors and everything. And we were here, having a good time, and I get a call from my daughter, who was elsewhere on the campus, saying that they're on lockdown because there's an active shooter. So, it's very upsetting to me. I think, whosoever, you know, did this, is very irresponsible and should be held accountable."
4. Police car on campus
5. Wide of police presence on campus
6. Wide of an emergency vehicle
7. Wide of police presence near Villanova University
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ashley Choi, Villanova University Employee:
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"I was talking to my boss, the dean of the library, in our office and she has a direct view of the public safety parking lot and she told me, she said, 'Ashley there's a lot of cop cars, there's lot of public safety cars going by.' And I wanted to keep calm so I said 'it's move-in day, like don't worry about it, there is nothing going on right now.' And as soon as I said that, I turned around to leave because I was done for the day and all I heard was like a cop or a police officer, somebody saying like get out immediately."
9. Tracking shot of a law enforcement officer with a rifle walking
10. SOUNDBITE (English)Hannah Fassbender, Villanova University Employee:
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"Makes me very angry that somebody would pull a hoax like this. I don't understand what the reasoning would be, why somebody would want to do this? I don't want to think about it being a hoax. I want to be able to know when this happens that it's serious and I think that would cause a little bit of a doubt in my mind of is this a hoax again? and I don t want that."
11. Pan of law enforcement near campus
12. Wide of a crowded street full law enforcement vehicles

STORYLINE:
False reports of active shooters at Villanova University and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Thursday led to panic and temporary lockdowns at the two campuses as they kicked off their fall semesters.

In Pennsylvania someone called 911 at about 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030GMT) reporting a shooter in a Villanova law school building with at least one wounded victim. Students received texts from the school's alert system saying “ACTIVE SHOOTER on VU campus. Move to secure location. Lock/barricade doors.”

The school's president later said it was a hoax.

After multiple law enforcement agencies including the FBI responded alongside local fire and emergency crews, the lockdown was lifted less than an hour later. School officials said there was no evidence of any threat.

The initial report sent police scouring the campus and even had some law enforcement officials suggesting they believed there was a shooter.

Villanova 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.

The Augustinian school got extra attention this year as the alma mater of new Pope Leo XIV.

AP video by Tassanee Vejpongsa and Mingson Lau

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