Umbrella-carrying student falsely labeled as gunman amid shooting scare

Published on August 27, 2025 at 22:57
6 min read
By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA

Social media users, including Congresswoman Nancy Mace, claimed a video of a student walking across a footbridge showed a gunman roaming the University of South Carolina's campus as an active shooter alert sent the school into panic. But the clip showed an innocent undergraduate carrying an umbrella, and the reports of an incident turned out to be false, part of a wave of "swatting" hoaxes that have targeted American universities as fall classes began in August 2025.

"Here is the alleged school shooter at USC -- BOLO -- white male, black shorts, grey tshirt, backpack," Mace, a Republican congresswoman running for governor in the state of South Carolina, wrote in the since-deleted August 24, 2025 post, according to screenshots shared online (archived here and here).

Screenshot of X via Mediaite, taken by AFP August 27, 2025

Similar posts spread across X and other platforms after officials broadcast an active shooter alert to its campus August 24 (archived here).

University spokesman Jeff Stensland said in an August 25 update shared with AFP that university police rushed to the school's library after fielding two calls that reported a shooter and included background sounds mimicking gunfire.

But after officers uncovered no threat, the university determined the calls to be a hoax.

Similar incidents of swatting -- deliberately phoning in a false emergency to trigger a law enforcement response -- targeted several other US universities in a span of days, according to campus alerts and school and police statements.

"Based on all available information, USCPD believes the active shooter alert issued last night was part of a swatting hoax," Stensland said.

The student in question was not, in fact, a shooter, Stensland added.

"Footage of a USC student carrying an umbrella was posted online after the initial Carolina Alert was issued," he said. "The student had no role in the incident."

In a reply to her initial post, Mace, whose child attends the university, had said the video was "information being sent to us in realtime from students at USC" and that "if it is incorrect we will absolutely pull it down" (archived here).

Reached by AFP, the congresswoman's campaign press team pointed to an August 25 post that expressed thanks to law enforcement and recounted the "terrifying" experience as a mother, but did not address the video she shared and later deleted (archived here).

They added in a statement to AFP: "Last night, my only title that mattered was 'mom.' Like thousands of others I was a concerned mother with a child on the USC campus doing all I could, in a scary moment, to share information that was flowing quickly to keep our kids safe."

A separate image of the same student smiling and posing with his umbrella was shared by a fellow student in a Snapchat group for members of the university's 2029 graduating class. The photo was then reposted to the Instagram account "Old Row Gamecocks," which shares content related to the institution (archived here).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Old Row Gamecocks (@oldrowgamecocks)

AFP determined the student's identity by tracing comments on the "Old Row Gamecocks" post to his high school and then finding other publicly available photos that named him. In an Instagram story viewed by AFP, his date to the high school's 2025 prom shared the "Old Row Gamecocks" photo and tagged his account.

Screenshot from Instagram taken August 25, 2025, with elements redacted by AFP

AFP reached out via Instagram for comment, but no response was forthcoming. AFP is not naming the individual out of concern for his privacy.

AFP has previously debunked past hoaxes misidentifying other shooters here.

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