A new Wired report claims to have identified those responsible for the two active shooter alarms at Villanova University. Wired reports that the threats were made by a person calling himself “Gores” online, who proclaims himself leader of a group called “Purgatory”; an ironic name, considering Villanova is a Catholic institution. According to Wired, Purgatory offers to issue fake threats to schools, such as those reported at Villanova on Thursday and Sunday, for as little as $20.
The report notes that the group has celebrated the media attention. Earlier this year, federal authorities secured guilty pleas from three men linked to Purgatory: Owen Jarboe, 19, from Hagerstown, Maryland; Evan Strauss, 27, from Moneta, Virginia; and Brayden Grace, 19, from Columbus, Ohio. They pleaded guilty to conspiracy, cyberstalking, interstate threatening communications, and threats of harm or destruction using fire and explosives.
These two false alarms, occurring just days apart, plunged Villanova University and its community into fear and confusion. On Thursday, as students and families were arriving to begin the academic year, calls reporting an active sniper led to two hours of panic. Police issued shelter-in-place alerts, activities were halted, and the shadow of a massacre loomed over the campus, yet in reality, not a single shot was fired.
Barely three days later, a similar threat again terrified the same institution on a quiet Sunday morning, once more forcing authorities to mobilize and the community to flee and brace for the worst.
These two incidents alone —two false alarms in less than three days, targeting the same place— would be enough to shake any community and rob it of its peace. But the most alarming part is not just the incidents themselves, but the deliberate cruelty behind them.
Let one thing be clear: these are not pranks. They are acts of malice and calculated wickedness. When someone falsely reports an active shooter, they do far more than interrupt classes or ongoing events: they inject terror into the lives of students, parents, faculty, and residents. For more than two hours on Thursday, many believed their lives were in danger. Strangers sheltered together, only to later discover they had been victims of a terrible hoax. As Villanova’s president, Reverend Peter Donohue, aptly put it: it was a “cruel farce.”
And it is pure, senseless cruelty. This type of action leaves invisible wounds, growing anxiety, loss of trust, and a community forced to live under the shadow of false alarms. It creates social damage that spreads: parents doubt campus safety, neighbors lose their peace, and a culture of fear begins to take root where it did not exist before, damaging community stability.
The deepest tragedy is what this reveals about the state of our collective values. Those behind such acts are not only wasting police resources or playing with others’ fears; they display an astonishing lack of sensitivity and social responsibility. To deliberately manufacture panic in a world already saturated with violence and real threats is to show contempt for one’s neighbors and for society as a whole. It actively contributes to the erosion of mutual trust, which is the glue of community life.
A clear message must be sent that this kind of behavior is intolerable and that it is a symptom of a sick society. These false alarms are more than “false alerts.” They are symptoms of the deterioration and delusion that is becoming increasingly collective in our society.
Until we face the problems of mental health, the lies held together by two thin threads and passed off as truths simply by the weight of who utters them, and above all, until we react with strict laws ensuring that firearms do not end up in the hands of people as disturbed as those who committed the shooting in Minnesota this August 27, just as the school year was beginning, we will continue fostering a society where cruelty becomes the backdrop and peaceful coexistence its first victim.
I wonder what members of the National Rifle Association would do if their children or grandchildren were among the minors who have lost their lives because of their obsession with the Second Amendment.