Overview
- U.S. Attorney David Metcalf announced Thursday that an unnamed juvenile faces federal charges tied to August 2025 swatting calls and the suspect told investigators they were part of the online group Purgatory.
- At Villanova University on Aug. 21, 2025, a false active-shooter report with gunshot sounds triggered a lockdown and a massive police and EMS response, and school officials later said there were no injuries.
- Villanova’s public safety chief told the campus the juvenile suspect had no link to the university, was never on campus, and allegedly chose targets at random, reflecting what prosecutors say about the broader pattern.
- Because the defendant is a minor, officials are not releasing the name or specific counts, and the case proceeds under federal juvenile privacy rules that limit public details.
- The FBI worked with Radnor Township Police, Pennsylvania State Police, Upper Merion Police and others on the probe, as local leaders called for deterrence, and researchers previously reported Purgatory members bragged online about similar hoaxes at schools including Bucknell and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.