Former midshipman charged with sending online threat that caused US Naval Academy lockdown
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ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A former U.S. Naval Academy midshipman has been charged in federal court with making a threat across state lines related to a lockdown and shooting at the military college in Maryland last week, the U.S. attorney’s office in Indiana said Tuesday.
Jackson Fleming, 23, was arrested Friday on suspicion of sending an online threat through a social media application concerning the academy, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Indiana said in a news release. Fleming, of Chesterton, Indiana, was charged with one count of transmitting a threat in interstate communication, the release said.
Jonathan Bedi, Fleming’s attorney, wrote in an email that “we intend to fight these charges in court vigorously.”
“No one, including Jack, should be judged by a mere accusation from the government,” Bedi wrote. “We are prepared to mount the strongest possible defense, and I am confident that when the complete facts emerge, Jack will be vindicated.”
Fleming attended the academy from June 30, 2021, to Jan. 5, 2024, the academy confirmed.
The threatening post triggered a lockdown at the academy Thursday. It prompted authorities to respond to what turned out to be a false report of a gunman. And during the investigation, a midshipman who had mistaken security personnel as a threat was shot in the shoulder in the ensuing confusion.
The academy said in a statement last week there was no active shooter threat.
The wounded midshipman was released from the hospital Friday. A member of the naval security force also received minor injuries, the academy said, and was treated at a hospital before being released.
The false report was made amid anxiety over a spate of recent violence at schools nationwide, including the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah college. A shooting at a high school in Denver last week left two students injured and the gunman dead, while a shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic church left two children from an affiliated school dead and 17 injured over two weeks ago.
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An earlier version of this report had an incorrect spelling of Jonathan Bedi’s last name.