Cleveland police, SWAT called to standoff on city's east side; officers determine it was a hoax

CLEVELAND - A standoff situation on Cleveland's east side Friday turned out to be hoax, ending in the arrest of a teenager, police said.

Cleveland police and the SWAT team were called to a house on East 117th near Union Avenue for a standoff situation just before 12:30 p.m.

A dispatcher said the standoff appeared to be domestic related.

Radio traffic indicated that officers were telling neighbors to stay down and get out of their homes to get to a safe place.

Cleveland police would only say a man is barricaded in a home on the street, but neighbors told NewsChannel5 there were children in the house.

But after a close to a three-hour ordeal, police said the call to police about the situation was a fake call, and that a 17-year-old boy was behind the prank. He was arrested and will be charged with inducing panic, officers said.

"This kid decided to do something that was stupid," said Cleveland Police Sgt. Sammy Morris.

Police said at no time was anyone ever in danger, but they never assumed the call was false.

"We treat all calls as if they're good, a good call. And, we came out and treated this call as if it were a good call, and we got a good result. We were able to get the individual who made the call," Morris said.

The boy will likely face felony charges due to the amount of manpower on the scene Friday. Dozens of officers responded to the call.