A man armed with a pistol and carrying zip ties took staff members hostage at a York, Pa., hospital’s intensive care unit Saturday before he was killed by police in a shootout that left an officer dead. Three workers at UPMC Memorial Hospital, including a doctor, a nurse and a custodian, and two officers were shot in the attack, said York County District Attorney Tim Barker. Gunfire erupted after officers went to engage the shooter, Diogenes Archangel-Ortiz, 49. Archangel-Ortiz was holding at gunpoint a female staff member who had her hands bound with zip ties when police opened fire, Barker said, the Associated Press reports.
Archangel-Ortiz apparently was at the hospital’s ICU earlier in the week for “a medical purpose involving another individual” and he intentionally targeted the workers there, Barker said. The officer who died was identified as Andrew Duarte of the West York Borough Police Department. Duarte was a law enforcement veteran who joined the department in 2022 after five years with the Denver Police Department. Gov. Josh Shapiro called the attack on police and health care workers “the act of a coward.” The shooting is part of a wave of gun violence that has swept through U.S. hospitals and medical centers, which have struggled to adapt to the growing threats. Such attacks have helped make health care one of the nation’s most violent fields, with workers suffering more nonfatal injuries from workplace violence than workers in any other profession, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.