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Campus Alert Archive
CCF Medina

Hoax call reporting an armed hostage-taker locks down hospital for two hours

AI-generated · every claim is source-linked
OHswattingemergency notificationhigh confidence
Confirmed HoaxDetermined to be a hoax. The institutional response is documented because it reveals how the alert system performed under a perceived real threat.

On November 13, 2018, a caller identifying himself as 'Jerry Smith' told Medina Police that a woman was holding people hostage with a gun on the second floor of Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital, a teaching site for the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. The 1:30 PM EST call placed the hospital and an attached medical office building on lockdown for two hours. The caller remained on the line for nine minutes with what police later described as an unusually relaxed demeanor before hanging up; the FBI later joined Medina Police in the search for him.

Alerts
2
Response
min
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital (Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine teaching site)
Private R1 · OH
All CCF Medina cases →
~32 studentsMass-notification + overhead pageCleveland Clinic Alert Service
Documented Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence · 2 verified verbatim

INITIAL ALERTTwitter/X
Verified verbatim@CleClinicNews on X (verbatim raw t.co)260 chars
Police are on scene at Medina Hospital responding to a potential active shooter situation in the medical office building. Both the hospital and office building are on lockdown. We advise no one travel to the Medina campus. We will continue to share updates.
Posted publicly by Cleveland Clinic's official @CleClinicNews account at 2:18 PM EST on November 13, 2018 (per the post's X status-ID timestamp), roughly 50 minutes into the lockdown; it explicitly localizes the threat to the medical office building and directs the public to stay away from the Medina campus
This is the first publicly transmitted message in the documented alert sequence; an internal Code Silver overhead page had already alerted on-site staff, but that page's wording was not preserved, so this public post is typed as the initial alert. The phrase 'We will continue to share updates' signals that further public messages were intended to follow
ALL CLEARTwitter/X+1h 29m
Verified verbatim@CleClinicNews on X (verbatim)279 chars
Medina Police have given the all clear at Medina Hospital and Medical Office Building. They are no longer on lockdown. All patients, visitors and employees are safe. We thank all first responders for their quick actions, as well as our employees for their immediate response.
Reconstructed from [News 5 Cleveland's all-clear coverage](https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/oh-medina/all-clear-given-at-medina-hospital-after-lockdown-for-potential-active-shooter), which timestamped the all-clear at approximately 3:30 PM EST on November 13, 2018
The FBI joined Medina Police in the search for the hoax caller; the [911 recording was later publicly released](https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/medina-county/listen-hoax-911-call-released-after-lockdown-at-cleveland-clinic-medina-hospital/95-614461526) by WKYC
Medina Police Chief Ed Kinney said the caller's relaxed demeanor was atypical for a real hostage situation, which raised early suspicions of a hoax
Message elements

How the first alert is built

To check this alert, Claude (an AI) read it in full 25 separate times, independently. Each read decided whether the message answers each of the six questions and gave a short reason. A final reviewer then weighed all 25 and wrote the plain-English verdict you see when you open a row. The score (for example 22/25) is how many reads agreed; the 25 individual reads are tucked underneath if you want to check them.

Police are on scene at Medina Hospital responding to a potential active shooter situation in the medical office building. Both the hospital and office building are on lockdown. We advise no one travel to the Medina campus. We will continue to share updates.

  • Sourceabsent0/0

    Who is sending the alert and who is responding. People act faster on a message from a clearly identifiable, credible sender, such as a named department, the police, or a branded alert system, than on an anonymous notice. A branded signature counts.

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  • Hazardabsent0/0

    What the threat actually is. A complete warning names the specific danger, such as a shooter, a fire, a tornado, or a gas leak, rather than a vague emergency, because people decide what to do based on what they are facing.

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  • Locationabsent0/0

    Where the threat is. Saying whether danger is in a specific building, a part of campus, or area-wide lets people judge their own proximity and choose a safe direction. Without a where, a warning is hard to act on precisely.

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  • Guidanceabsent0/0

    The protective action to take. A clear, specific instruction, such as shelter in place, evacuate, avoid the area, or run-hide-fight, drives faster and more correct protective behavior than describing the threat alone.

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  • Timeabsent0/0

    When the message applies. A timestamp, the word now or immediately, or a phrase like until further notice tells the reader whether the danger is current and how quickly to act.

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  • Impactabsent0/0

    What the hazard could do to the people in its path. Beyond naming the threat, a complete warning conveys its potential consequences or severity, such as that a tornado can level buildings or that a leak could be explosive, so recipients grasp how much danger they are in. Research on warning message content finds that a concrete impact statement helps people personalize their risk and act sooner.

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Systematic AI judgments with visible reasoning, not human-validated codings.

About this analysis
Context

Background

On November 13, 2018, a caller identifying himself as 'Jerry Smith' (with what reporters described as a 'thick' or 'foreign' accent) told Medina Police just before 1:30 PM EST that a woman was holding people hostage with a gun on the second floor of Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital. The call placed both the hospital and an attached medical office building on a two-hour lockdown, with close to 150 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies responding. Cleveland Clinic Medina is a teaching site for the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, hosting emergency-medicine and internal-medicine residents on rotation. The caller stayed on the phone for nine minutes, describing a hostage scenario with unusual specificity but with a 'relaxed demeanor' that Medina Police Chief Ed Kinney later said was atypical for genuine hostage situations. After a building sweep found no female suspect and no shots had been fired, the scene was declared clear at approximately 3:30 PM EST. The FBI subsequently joined Medina Police in the search for 'Jerry Smith'; the 911 recording was publicly released the following day in hopes the voice would be recognized. The case is one of the earliest documented hospital-targeted swatting events at a Cleveland Clinic facility, predating the 2025 Mercy Hospital bomb threat and Fairview shooting lockdowns by nearly seven years.
Analysis

Key Findings

The 2018 hoax pre-dates the 2022-2025 swatting waves by several years, an early documented example of a hospital-targeted hoax lockdown
Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital functions as a Lerner College of Medicine teaching site, meaning residents on rotation were among those sheltered in place, a population usually invisible in Clery-style emergency-notification metrics
Medina Police released the 911 audio the next day to seek public identification of the caller, predating the FBI's coordinated public outreach during the 2022-2025 swatting waves
Outcome
After a sweep of the hospital and the medical office building, the scene was declared clear at approximately 3:30 PM EST. No shots were fired and no suspect was ever located. The FBI joined Medina Police in pursuing the hoax caller.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
  2. News
  3. News
  4. News
  5. News
  6. Social
  7. Official
  8. Official
  9. social media
Cite this case

Campus Alert Archive. "Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital (Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine teaching site): Hoax call reporting an armed hostage-taker locks down hospital for two hours." Incident of November 13, 2018. Added May 2026; last updated July 2026. https://campusalertarchive.com/case/cleveland-clinic-medina-hoax-2018-11-13/

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Alert text quoted on this page remains the work of the issuing institution; the archive is a secondary source.

Tags
hoaxswattingcode-silverohiocleveland-cliniclerner-college-of-medicinecase-western-reserveteaching-hospital911-audio-releasedHoax
Added May 2026Updated July 2026Via ingestion