A bomb threat at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital led to a brief lockdown and a coordinated response involving local and state agencies on Thursday afternoon.
Oak Bluffs Chief of Police Jonathan Searle said the threat was deemed to not be highly credible, and normal operations resumed after investigations were carried out.
The threat came in as a call to Oak Bluffs Police. Searle said it “fit the profile of spoof bomb threats that occur on a regular basis [around the state and country],” but added that first responders did their due diligence, locked the hospital down, and still allowed patient access as needed.
The threat claimed a bomb was at the hospital, and the voice, which was described as “robotic,” by police, demanded $2,000 be brought to the roof of the hospital but described no plan to pick up the demanded money.
“We did a quick sweep of the perimeter and areas, and we got DOD [Department of Defense] down here on the helicopter with the dogs and did an in-depth sweep of the building to ensure all things are clear, and now, we are back to normal operations,” Searle said.
Searle further described the voice as having “a delay in between questions, answers, and statements, with a Middle Eastern accent.”
The goal of the hoax emergency call is still under investigation.
“The one thing we don’t want is fake calls distracting us from real attacks,” said Searle.
Searle said the response, which included Oak Bluffs Police, fire, and EMS and collaboration with hospital administration, security, and Massachusetts State Police, went smoothly.
Searle said the hospital was locked down for about an hour while they waited for the federal Critical Incident Technical Investigation team to helicopter an explosive detection dog in to complete the sweep.
“We were also assisted by the Dukes County Sheriff’s Office with a drone to visually inspect the entire building from the exterior.”
Searle added that there was “great coordination by all agencies involved, and thankfully it was confirmed to be a hoax threat, but we err on the side of caution.”