Former Naval Academy midshipman posted about killing peers over their Charlie Kirk comments

Jackson Fleming was upset by the posts that he was reading about the death of Charlie Kirk, his lawyer said. So the 23-year-old went online from his home in Indiana and lashed out in response to his former classmates at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.

“Honestly not that surprised I’ll be carrying out the mass execution of my peers in a couple,” he replied on Jodel, the app used by midshipmen.

His message set off a series of events that resulted, almost 700 miles away, in Navy Police shooting a midshipman in the Naval Academy dorm in a case of mistaken identity. Elsewhere, too, campuses were locked down as political tensions boiled over following Kirk’s death.

With Fleming scheduled for trial in federal court next month, his attorney is offering the first explanation of the ex-midshipman’s motives and asking the White House to intervene.

“He was responding to people, other midshipmen and other people associated with the Naval Academy, who were celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death, and he was offended by that,” his attorney, Jonathan Bedi, said in an interview.

Fleming attended the Naval Academy for about 2 1/2 years as a member of the class of 2025. He was arrested one day after posting the message and is charged with sending an interstate threat. The charge brings a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Fleming was released on $20,000 bond.

Bedi is not disputing that his client sent the message but arguing the words were mere bluster.

“What he wrote was never intended to be a threat and never intended to threaten anybody but rather to get the other people to stop celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk,” Bedi said.

Under federal law, prosecutors don’t have to prove Fleming intended to carry out the threat.

Bedi is asking the judge to screen prospective jurors for strong opinions both favorable and unfavorable about Kirk and his conservative campus activist group, Turning Point USA, according to court documents.

Kirk, 31, the political activist and ally of President Donald Trump, was shot and killed during an event at a college in Utah on Sept. 10. State prosecutors there charged Tyler Robinson, 22, of Utah, with Kirk’s murder. They accuse Robinson of carrying out the shooting as an act of political violence. He faces the death penalty.

After the shooting, commenters flooded the internet with opinions about the provocative Kirk. Then came a wave of reprisals against those accused of celebrating Kirk’s death.

There were tense days of threats and lockdowns. Some two dozen university faculty in Maryland found themselves on Turning Point’s “watchlist.” There were threats against historically Black colleges and universities. The presiding officers of Maryland’s General Assembly were targeted by bomb threats.

The case against Fleming stands out because it resulted in violence: a student being shot and wounded mistakenly.

In Annapolis that day, shortly before 5:30 p.m., military and local police responded to reports of an active shooter in the Yard. Officers locked down the campus and began checking rooms in the huge dormitory of Bancroft Hall. A rumor spread online that the shooter could be disguised as law enforcement.

One midshipman mistook a police officer for the threat and hit him in the head with the butt of a parade rifle. The officer shot the midshipman near the shoulder.

Both were treated at a hospital and released. The accident led to new directives in how Navy Police respond to the academy.

Federal authorities have not disclosed in court records how they traced the threat to Chesterton, Indiana. Much of their case against Fleming remains sealed. His trial is scheduled for April 20 in federal court in Indiana.

Meanwhile, Bedi is downplaying the matter and saying the U.S. attorney general and president should step in.

“I’m surprised that Pam Bondi and President Trump haven’t dismissed this case,” he said. “I hope the government does the right thing.”

Others, including the Naval Academy’s former public affairs officer, don’t see Fleming’s words as empty bluster.

In his job from 2011 to 2013, William Marks managed the Naval Academy’s social media accounts and reviewed thousands of social media comments about the institution.

“There are many comments that are disparaging but do not convey an intent to cause harm,” he said. “This did, and that’s the difference to me. I would have flagged it.”