911 call in Ohio leads to Meadville hospital threat lockdown

Jan. 25—An open-line phone call in Ohio to the Ashtabula County 911 Center just before 10 a.m. Wednesday set off a series of events that resulted in a temporary lockdown of Meadville Medical Center's (MMC) facilities due to a potential threat.

The alleged threat led to strong Meadville Police Department response, along with other law enforcement, to the hospital's Alden Street outpatient facility as well as its Terrace Street facility, but nothing was found, Chief Michael Stefanucci said.

By 12:09 p.m., the Crawford County Department of Public Safety issued the following statement via text message about an active shooter hoax at the hospital facilities:

"Crawford County Public Safety received reports of an active shooter on MMC Properties which have been found to be a hoax. There was not an active shooter at any MMC facility. Law enforcement is investigating the source of the hoax."

What set things in motion was the Ohio phone call and subsequent miscommunication that cascaded into what turned out to be incorrect reports of an active shooter.

The Ashtabula County 911 Center received the open-line call just before 10 a.m. where the Ashtabula 911 operator "believed they heard the person (in the background) say 'I'm going to shoot up Meadville Health Center,'" Stefanucci said. "Not Meadville Medical Center. Not Meadville community. Meadville Health Center. Unknown caller. We don't have a name, a phone number."

An open-line call is where a connection is made and someone may be heard speaking, but doesn't respond to the call-taker's questions.

Ashtabula 911 contacted Pennsylvania State Police at Meadville, who in turn contacted Meadville Police Department at 10 about a possible threat.

"Neither we or the state police have a phone number, a name or anything from this open call in Ashtabula," Stefanucci said.

At 10:09, city police contacted MMC's security at the hospital's main switchboard.

"We had no reason for serious concern," Stefanucci said. "I reviewed our phone call to them. The officer relayed exactly that to them. PSP had contacted us that there was an open phone call in Ashtabula, Ohio, and this was what was said. We have no more information or reason to believe there's an immediate threat."

At 10:56, city police got a call via Crawford County 911 from MMC that there was an active shooter at the hospital's Alden Street facility.

That prompted seven Meadville officers, with assistance from state police and the Crawford County Sheriff's Office, to arrive there in less than two minutes.

"(Hospital) security on scene reported nothing, but we still searched and cleared the building. There was no disturbance. Nothing was found," Stefanucci said.

Then police got a second call of an active shooter at the hospital's Terrace Street facility, according to the chief. Police responded to Terrace Street, but again, a search of the building found nothing.

Two active shooter calls apparently happened because of a text, Stefanucci said.

"The wife of a Meadville Medical Center employee got a text from her husband saying 'Active shooter' and that he's safe and please be patient," Stefanucci said.

The woman, who thought her husband was at the Alden Street facility, contacted the hospital's main switchboard about an active shooter, according to the chief. The woman called the hospital later saying she believed her husband actually was working at the Terrace Street facility.

"In reality, he had been at the Alden Street facility and she saw the text 20 minutes after it had been sent," Stefanucci said. "He was, in fact, on lockdown. He was, in fact, probably told there was an active shooter in the building and texted her with what believed was accurate information."

The call about the active shooter came in about 45 minutes after police originally had notified MMC security of a potential threat.

"They must have notified people," Stefanucci said. "I can only assume that other staff members overheard conversations — it moves from one person to another to another. Then 45 minutes later at 10:56 a.m. the word of mouth is now an active shooter. Someone calls the (hospital's main) switchboard to report an active shooter and the switchboard calls 911."

Police interviews with individual medical center workers found employee-to-employee reports of an active shooter being passed along.

"Do we know where the story went astray? — No," Stefanucci said. "We talked to staff members who said 'I talked to this person.' We talked to that person and they said 'I talked to this person.' It was someone who had heard it from somebody else — who heard it from somebody else.

"I'm not pointing fingers, there's nobody to blame," the chief continued. "This can happen. We don't want it to happen, but I'm glad everybody took it seriously.

"What happened was a fear response — it's a reaction to the world we live in," he added.

The situation prompted MMC to go into a full lockdown of its facilities; it was lifted by mid-afternoon.

A statement issued by Philip Pandolph, the hospital's president, expressed gratitude for the swift response to its facilities at Alden Street and Terrace Street.

"State Police, Meadville Police and the Sheriff's Department combined with a force of approximately 25 to 30 officers to sweep the facility and ensure staff and patients were safe," Pandolph said. "Our community is incredibly fortunate to have these agencies at the ready, to serve and protect our residents. In addition, our employees at our Alden Street Campus followed our security protocols perfectly to ensure they were taking all appropriate measures to manage this very difficult situation."

Pandolph noted that the hospital has increased its security by adding more officers and metal detectors at entrances.

"Threats and acts of violence against our dedicated workforce is truly disheartening and seem to be increasing locally and throughout the broader healthcare community," Pandolph said. "On behalf of the entire medical system and our 2,000-plus employees, we sincerely appreciate the outpouring of support that was shown during this challenging time.

"While we are truly grateful this threat never materialized, we would like to reiterate that threats and violence against healthcare workers is unacceptable," he continued. "We will take legal action against anyone who chooses to harm or threaten any of our dedicated workforce to the fullest extent of the law."

Initial uncertainty around the situation prompted calls to police and moved other entities such Crawford Central School District, Seton School and the Meadville YMCA to take enhanced security measures temporarily as well.

After being advised of the situation by city police at about 11:30 a.m., Crawford Central buildings were moved to a "safe hold" status, according to Jenn Galdon, assistant to the superintendent.

Under the safe hold, no visitors were permitted to enter the schools and those inside the buildings were not permitted to leave. In other respects, however, activities continued as usual, according to Galdon.

"Students were allowed to go to classes, lunch and so forth inside the building," she said.

While the reports received by police did not involve the schools, Galdon said the safe hold was put in place "out of an abundance of caution." To avoid the possibility of lifting and then reinstating it, the hold was left in effect for the remainder of the school day, she added.

The hold was in effect not only for the Meadville-area schools, but also the district's two schools in Cochranton and district buildings not used by students, such as the former East End school and the Instructional Support Center that serves as the district headquarters.

Crawfrd Central officials also alerted Crawford Tech to the situation, according to Director Kevin Sprong, and the technical school instituted a similar response. The move to safe hold status came just as the school's afternoon cohort was arriving.

"Luckily we were able to get the students in the building and then institute the safety hold," Sprong said.

The response did not have a major impact on students and teachers, according to Sprong. Once the hold was in place, doors to the outside were locked, he said, and "it was business as usual on the inside, basically."

Meadville Tribune reporter Mike Crowley contributed to this report.

Keith Gushard can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.