Shooting hoax at Villanova spread panic during orientation: 'Harder to leave our children'

Students gather in prayer after an active shooting hoax at Villanova University on Aug. 21, 2025.

VILLANOVA, PA — Just days before the start of the academic year, a report of a shooting at Villanova University on Aug. 21 sent panic through the campus as frightened students and visitors scrambled to barricade themselves inside nearby buildings.

The report of an active shooter that forced the university into lockdown on the first day of orientation was deemed a "cruel hoax," according to the school's president, Rev. Peter M. Donohue. A campus alert was sent around 4:30 p.m. local time during an orientation Mass welcoming new students, who had recently moved in on Aug. 20.

The school's alert urged students and visitors, including many families sending off their loved ones, to move to a secure location and lock or barricade doors. Authorities later began clearing the scene after confirming there was no evidence of an active shooter incident or victims.

"Today, as we were celebrating orientation mass to welcome our newest Villanovians and their families to our community, panic and terror ensued with the news of a possible shooter at the law school," Donohue said in a statement.

First-year students and their families filed back to Corr Hall Chapel for an evening blessing by Donohue, who wanted to calm and unite the crowd after the incident had shocked families and students on campus.

Donohue and many others were attending the opening Mass when they got a call or text about an active shooter on campus. He said he went inside the church, and everyone in the seats scattered."They walked up to me and said, 'You need to get out of here now,'" Donohue said. "We weren’t at the second reading yet."

'Makes it harder to leave our children'

Randall Carter and Charlie Schwartz, both freshmen from California, said they ran off into nearby buildings that were open and rushed into classrooms.

Schwartz and his mother, Dana Nachman, both from Los Altos, California, ran into an empty classroom in a university engineering building. They even barricaded the door.

"It was extremely stressful and makes it harder to leave our children," she said.

Another parent of a first-year student, Joe DiRienzo, of Harding, New Jersey, said the situation was managed well by staff.

Sunglasses and water bottles were strung out around campus during the chaos, leaving a crowded, makeshift lost and found table. Though everyone was thankful the shooting was a hoax, the experience left an uneasy feeling around the campus of the Catholic university in suburban Philadelphia.

Many continued to gather and pray afterwards. Donohue led the campus in the Lord's Prayer and dismissed the crowd to be with their loved ones after the blessing. He called it an "upheaval" of what is usually a "beautiful celebration.""I said to somebody a little earlier, we will remember this at your graduation," he said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Shooting hoax at Villanova spread panic during orientation: 'Harder to leave our children'

Reporting by Shane Brennan and Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY NETWORK / USA TODAY

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