I asked the woman crying outside the Naval Academy gate if she was OK.
There was a message from academy staff on my phone, the first context for the shooting scare unfolding inside. I introduced myself and offered to share it.
She called me media scum, punctuated with some obscenities. You can’t expect to be liked for sharing the truth.
The folks behind Arundel First Alert felt this same sting, although for telling only a fragment of the truth.
“SHOTS BEING FIRED - THREE REPORTED DOWN BY COMMAND | LOCKDOWN UNDERWAY | This is not a drill | UPDATE WHEN AVAILABLE,” the group posted on Facebook at 6:16 p.m. on Sept. 11.
Three weren’t down. Shots turned out to be a single shot by a Navy police officer after he was physically struck by a midshipman during a security sweep of Bancroft Hall.
The next day, the founder of the Facebook group and website, stung by criticism about causing panic, defended posting incorrect details. Jim Goetz recorded a fire chief’s radio transmission and didn’t wait for clarity or confirmation.
“We will never apologize for warning our subscribers of impending doom,” he wrote. “We are not your mainstream media.”
Those details, shared by other groups as well, quickly overran the truth, seen by millions on Sept. 11 — exactly 24 years after the worst terror attack in U.S. history.
“My son is a student navalAcademy,” one man posted on X. “It’s his 1st year. The school is on lockdown because of a asshole shooter. Three kids have been shot and I have no information about my son. I’m going insane.”
The posts are a snapshot of the American state of fear, driven by falsehoods and conspiracy theories.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a scare in Annapolis or the “left-wing” assassination of conservative agitator Charlie Kirk in Utah. It makes no difference if it’s President Donald Trump’s rumored death or an imaginary cabal of child abusers in the basement of a D.C. pizza parlor.
Lies, damned lies and social media are destroying our republic.
As my colleague Tim Prudente reported, the Naval Academy shooting and confusion stemmed from a prank threat sent about 5 p.m. Federal prosecutors say a former midshipman at his parents’ home in Indiana used a messaging app to make the threat.
Navy police and other agencies swept Bancroft Hall, the massive academy dorm. Online reports said the “shooter” was posing as law enforcement.
When an officer checked one room, a midshipman inside — a 19-year-old raised in the age of school shootings — mistook him for the shooter and hit him in the head with a parade rifle. The officer shot the mid in the arm.
The gunshot followed a day of right-wing anger over Kirk’s death. Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and others inflamed passions by threatening left-wing groups critical of Kirk’s hateful rhetoric.
The academy was uniquely primed to explode.
Months of ideological purges, relentless focus on “warrior” ethos, leadership turmoil and casting political opponents as the enemy may have flipped the mass-shooting maxim of “run, hide, fight.”
Add a little-known police agency that sometimes conflicts with mids, faculty and alumni, a city gun-shy from two mass shootings and the ravenous beasts of Facebook, X, TikTok and other platforms were roaring for more, more, more.
Goetz’s post was among the first, shared 3,200 times by his 300,000 followers.
Nine minutes later, Mario Nawfal, an Australian political influencer beloved by X owner Elon Musk, conveyed the same details along with a 6:14 p.m. post on the platform by a midshipman from Louisiana.
It identified the former classmate as the shooter and included a yearbook photo.
“Sources say the suspected shooter at the Naval Academy is a former Midshipman who had been removed from the school,” Nawfal wrote. “He was reportedly seen on campus dressed as a police officer and carrying a weapon.”
His post was seen 238,000 times.
Alertpage, a fee-based scanner monitor in Washington, posted the same falsehood as Goetz at 6:38 p.m.
“UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY ON LOCKDOWN DUE TO SHOTS FIRED-INITIALLY REPORTED AS AN ARMED PERSON AT THE CAMPUS-COMMAND WITH 3 PATIENTS INJURED,” the feed on X reads.
The post went even further — 400,000 views.
Over on TikTok, Democratic political consultant John Aravosis intoned a similar description for his 800,000 followers, with a headshake of lament.
“Three people reportedly have been struck with arms fire,” he said. “This just never ends.”
Nobody, though, beat Armed Forces Press on Trump’s Truth Social for fear-mongering among its 3 million followers.
“We are at war ...” it posted at 7:57 p.m.
Traditional news sources were just as callous. Allison Papson, a senior assignment editor at Fox 5 D.C., shared a video from a midshipman at 11:03 p.m.
A single gunshot cut through indiscriminate shouting in the audio on X.
“He says he only captured one of the shots on video but heard three shots in total being fired,” Papson wrote.
It was seen 6,000 times.
Amends have been made, posts updated, details revised. The mid deleted the photo of his former classmate, and Nawfal posted a retraction.
“An earlier report incorrectly named a former Midshipman as responsible for the shooting at the U.S. Naval Academy,” he wrote.
The Navy didn’t help, failing to recognize what was swirling around them.
Goetz hadn’t thought about Kirk’s death, sowing fear or the significance of the date.
“Waiting 45 minutes for the authorities to call back, confirm the incident and then tell us NOTHING. Because it’s under investigation,” he wrote. “Meanwhile, our subs remain in danger.”
Except, he admitted, he never believed there was a threat.
“I really didn’t think it was an active shooter. Our information was not wrong. It was right at the moment.”
Jim Goetz isn’t the problem. It’s the platform algorithms that push fear for profit, and the billionaire owners who don’t care about the damage.
The beast has moved on, looking for the next terror to exploit.
Weeping lady by the academy gate, I know you were angry and frightened.
I feel the same way.
This column has been updated to correct the timeline of events on Sept. 10 and 11.
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