Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in central New Jersey briefly locked down Thursday afternoon as law enforcement responded to a report of an active shooter inside the installation.
The investigation found there was no shooter, a base spokesperson said in an email. The installation announced the all-clear around 3:45 p.m. local time, about an hour after warning all personnel at one of the East Coast’s largest military bases to seek shelter.
“JBDML is no longer under lockdown condition,” Air Force Capt. Kitsana Dounglomchan, a base spokesperson, said in an email. “We received notification of an active shooter on the joint base. After investigating the incident, it was found that there was no active shooter. We appreciate the public’s concern and thank you for your continued support.”
The base had announced on social media that a shooter was reported at Building 5321, part of the Army’s 99th Regional Support Command.
Dounglomchan did not immediately answer what prompted the active shooter warning. The Burlington County Sheriff’s Office referred questions to the military.
Around 47,000 uniformed and civilian employees from each branch of the armed forces and their families call JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst home.
The base is the Pentagon’s only installation that services the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. Located an hour northeast of Philadelphia, the sprawling 42,000-acre base is a hub for Air Force airlift and tanker fleets and Army reserve components in the northeast. It hosts the Army’s 174th Infantry Brigade, the Air Force’s 108th Wing, and the 99th Regional Support Command, among others.
Army Times senior reporter Davis Winkie contributed to this story.
Rachel Cohen is the editor of Air Force Times. She joined the publication as its senior reporter in March 2021. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Frederick News-Post (Md.), Air and Space Forces Magazine, Inside Defense, Inside Health Policy and elsewhere.
Jaime Moore-Carrillo is an editorial fellow for Military Times and Defense News. A Boston native, Jaime graduated with degrees in international affairs, history, and Arabic from Georgetown University, where he served as a senior editor for the school's student-run paper, The Hoya.
