Jackson Memorial Hospital Received Another Threat

MIAMI, FL — Police were conducting a floor-by-floor search of Jackson Memorial Hospital on Monday after officials received another anonymous threat regarding a planned attack at the facility. Detective Argemis Colome of the Miami-Dade Police Department told Patch that the hospital remained open. Police said that the all clear was given around 2 p.m.

A man was taken into custody Friday after Jackson Memorial Hospital received threats that someone was planning to shoot staff. Colome told Patch on Friday that no one was injured in the earlier threat and that the hospital remained open as officers searched the facility.

"We got a tip, one of those anonymous tips saying the same thing — they're going to shoot up JMH," Colome said on Monday. "We're obviously taking it seriously. We have officers on scene investigating."

Monday's tip came in at 10:11 a.m. Local 10 News reported that multiple healthcare facilities also received threats.

"We do have a lot of police presence on scene," Colome explained.

Friday's tip mentioned the care of the caller's mother, but there was no such reference in Monday's incident. "This time it's just an anonymous tip hotline threatening to shoot the hospital," Colome said.

Jackson Memorial Hospital is the major teaching facility for the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine with more than 1,550 licensed beds. It is also home to Ryder Trauma Center, which is the only adult and pediatric Level 1 trauma center in Miami-Dade County.

Colome said he did not immediately have an update on the man taken into custody on Friday. But earlier in the day, the man had complained to hospital staff about the care that a woman he referred to as his mother had been receiving at Jackson.

Friday's incident came one day after a lone gunman killed five people at The Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland.

Photo by Paul Scicchitano