Campus Alert Archive
CCF Medina

Nine Minutes of 'Jerry Smith': How a Calm Hoaxer Locked Down a Cleveland Clinic Teaching Hospital

OHswattingemergency notificationmedium 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 an unusually relaxed demeanor before hanging up; the FBI later joined Medina Police in the search for him.

Alerts
4
Response
5 min
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital (Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine teaching site)
Private R1 · OH
~32 studentsMass-notification + overhead pageCleveland Clinic Alert Service
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

4 messages in sequence · 1 verified verbatim

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTPA System
Approximate reconstructionReconstructed from Cleveland Clinic newsroom statement; standard hospital Code Silver format80 chars
Code Silver, second floor. Code Silver, second floor. Code Silver, second floor.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Reconstructed in the standard three-repeat hospital overhead-page format; Cleveland Clinic's newsroom statement timestamped the police response at approximately 1:30 PM EST on November 13, 2018
Employees later told [Fox 8 Cleveland](https://fox8.com/news/medina-hospital-says-its-on-lockdown-after-alert-about-possible-active-shooter/) that they were instructed to turn off room lights and silence cellphones — standard active-assailant shelter procedure
Cleveland Clinic Medina is a designated teaching site for Lerner College of Medicine's emergency-medicine residency rotations
UPDATETwitter/X+20 min
Verified verbatimCleveland Clinic News official X (@CleClinicNews) post257 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 on November 13, 2018, as the lockdown began; it explicitly localizes the threat to the medical office building and directs the public to stay away from the Medina campus
The phrase 'We will continue to share updates' marks this as the first in an intended sequence of public messages, distinct from the internal Code Silver overhead page heard by on-site staff
UPDATEEmail+25 min
Approximate reconstructionReconstructed using the Cleveland Clinic Alert Service FAQ format and contemporary news reporting297 chars
Cleveland Clinic Alert: Medina Hospital is currently in lockdown due to a report of an armed individual on the second floor. All employees are instructed to shelter in place, turn off lights, silence cellphones, and remain in your current location until further notice. Medina Police are on scene.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Reconstructed using the [Cleveland Clinic Alert Service FAQ](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/-/scassets/files/org/about/emergency-management/cleveland-clinic-alert-service-faq.ashx?la=en) template, which directs employees to shelter in place during armed-assailant alerts
[News 5 Cleveland reported](https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/oh-medina/all-clear-given-at-medina-hospital-after-lockdown-for-potential-active-shooter) that an attached medical office building was placed on lockdown alongside the hospital itself
The hoax caller 'Jerry Smith' stayed on the line for nine minutes, describing a 'female with a gun holding people hostage' on the second floor — a level of detail that initially convinced responders the threat was credible
ALL CLEAREmail+2 h
Approximate reconstructionReconstructed from News 5 Cleveland all-clear reporting and Cleveland Clinic newsroom updates211 chars
Cleveland Clinic Alert: The Medina Hospital lockdown has been lifted. Police have determined the report to be a hoax. No threat was found. The hospital is resuming normal operations. Thank you for your patience.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

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
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 contemporary 'Purgatory'-style swatting wave by seven years, suggesting hospital-targeted hoaxes have a longer history than is generally acknowledged in campus-alert literature
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's decision to release the 911 audio for public identification of the caller is a rare law-enforcement transparency response, 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
    Police: Active shooter situation at Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital was a 'hoax' (Cleveland 19)
    cleveland19.com
  2. News
    Police release 911 call that triggered active shooter hoax at Medina Hospital (Cleveland 19)
    cleveland19.com
  3. News
    FBI teams up with Medina Police to track down 911 hoax caller (Cleveland 19)
    cleveland19.com
  4. News
    Police: Medina Hospital situation was a 'hoax' (News 5 Cleveland)
    news5cleveland.com
  5. News
    Listen: Hoax 911 call released after lockdown (WKYC)
    wkyc.com
  6. Social
    Cleveland Clinic News (@CleClinicNews) on X — lockdown announcement
    x.com
  7. Official
    Cleveland Clinic Newsroom: Police Responding to Potential Active Shooter at Medina Hospital
    newsroom.clevelandclinic.org
  8. Official
    Cleveland Clinic Alert Service FAQ
    my.clevelandclinic.org
Tags
hoaxswattingcode-silverohiocleveland-cliniclerner-college-of-medicinecase-western-reserveteaching-hospital911-audio-releasedHoax
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion