{"id":180927,"date":"2026-05-01T05:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T05:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/180927\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T05:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T05:32:07","slug":"feds-charge-juvenile-for-2025-swatting-hoax-at-villanova-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/180927\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds charge juvenile for 2025 swatting hoax at Villanova University"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

The United States Attorney\u2019s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Thursday filed charges<\/a> against a juvenile for an alleged series of swatting calls aimed at universities and other institutions across the country, including Villanova University<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSwatting\u201d involves calling 911 to falsely report a major crime<\/a>, forcing a large response from a SWAT team. In August 2025, the defendant allegedly reported a false active shooter threat that sent students scrambling for cover.\n<\/p>\n

Reports of the shooting came as the university was holding its annual Opening Day<\/a> with incoming students and their families. Social media videos<\/a> showed waves of people cramming into buildings as armed officers searched the campus. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro slammed the call<\/a> as a \u201ccruel swatting incident.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank our federal partners for their diligence in bringing these charges,\u201d Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said Thursday in a statement. \u201cThat a juvenile would be subject to federal prosecution reflects the seriousness of these offenses and the distress these actions have caused. I also want to thank the Radnor, Villanova University and Lower Merion Police Departments for their swift response that day.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[3635,183,185,184,186,2627],"class_list":["post-180927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lower-merion","tag-fbi","tag-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion-headlines","tag-lower-merion-news","tag-lower-merion-township","tag-villanova-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}