Sheraton Columbus evacuated over possible threat from barricaded man, but no bomb found

Cole Behrens, The Columbus Dispatch
·2 min read

The Sheraton Columbus Hotel at Capitol Square was evacuated and nearby streets Downtown were closed for about three hours Monday after a man barricaded himself in a room and suggested in a note that he might have an explosive device, Columbus police said.

Cmdr. Mark Denner said emergency responders acting on the potential bomb threat found no device and the man was eventually taken into custody. He was taken to a mental health treatment facility.

The Sheraton Columbus Hotel at Capitol Square, located at State and 3rd streets near the Ohio Statehouse and Ohio Theatre, Downtown, was evacuated and nearby streets closed for about three hours Monday afternoon due to a man with mental health issues who barricaded himself in a room and suggested in a note he had an explosive device. No device was found and the man was taken into custody for treatment at a mental health facility.

Columbus Fire Battalion Chief Jeffrey Geitter confirmed there was no device or bomb found on scene.

At approximately 3:36 p.m. officers responded to the Sheraton Hotel at 75 E State St. at 3rd Street for a man experiencing a mental health crisis, Denner said. When officers arrived, they learned there was some type of note that he may have a device that could cause a public safety issue.

Police spoke with hotel management and evacuated the 26-floor, 350-foot-tall hotel room by room and floor by floor as a precautionary measure. Streets around the hotel, which is located near the Ohio Theatre and the Ohio Statehouse, were closed off.

First responders, including fire and emergency medical services, responded promptly and followed their training, Denner said.

“They did a great job of slowing things down, making contact, trying to assess the situation,” Denner said.

Officers took the man into custody without incident, Denner said. No one was injured.

Denner said he did not know what floor the man was on or how he barricaded himself. He also did not know how many guests were evacuated from the hotel.

"At the end it was a good result and everybody now can go back to the hotel and go back to their day," Denner said.

Columbus police and fire units outside the Sheraton Columbus Hotel at Capitol Square, where a man with mental health issues barricaded himself in a room Monday afternoon and left a note suggesting he had an explosive device. The man was later taken into custody without incident and no device was found.
Columbus police and fire units outside the Sheraton Columbus Hotel at Capitol Square, where a man with mental health issues barricaded himself in a room Monday afternoon and left a note suggesting he had an explosive device. The man was later taken into custody without incident and no device was found.

Robert Everett, of Tuscarawas County, was a guest at the Sheraton and was visiting Columbus for business with the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, which has an office nearby on Town Street.

He said he and a colleague were returning from a meeting there when they discovered all of the commotion outside the hotel at State and 3rd streets.

“These are the type of threats that create havoc and cause a lot of people stress and and unfair duress at the cost to city taxpayers,” Everett said.

Workers at the Rhodes State Office Tower received an alert Monday afternoon that they were being sent home because of an "ongoing police safety situation" at a hotel. The alert didn't name the hotel or provide other information.  The Rhodes Tower is blocks away from the Sheraton and not in the area of Downtown where streets were closed.

cbehrens@dispatch.com

@colebehr_report

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: No bomb found in threat at Sheraton Columbus as barricade ends