This story was updated Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 1 p.m. ET. The initial story published Sunday, Feb. 23.
The gunman who held ICU staff members hostage at UPMC Memorial Hospital and killed a police officer, along with injuring several others, was told that his loved one had died in the hospital prior to the shooting, according to media reports and social media posts.
During the shootout, three hospital staff members—a doctor, a nurse and a custodian—along with two other officers were shot and wounded, York County District Attorney Tim Barker said at a Saturday afternoon news conference.
The officer who was killed during Saturday’s shooting was identified as Andrew Duarte of the West York Borough Police Department. Duarte’s funeral service is scheduled for Friday.
Around 10:35 a.m. Saturday, an individual identified as Diogenes Archangel-Ortiz entered UPMC Memorial Hospital, a 104-bed hospital in West Manchester Township in Pennsylvania, armed with a handgun and zip ties and held hospital staff members in the ICU as hostages, Barker said during the news conference.
Archangel-Ortiz was shot and killed by police officers during the attack. No patients were injured during the attack, authorities said.
Archangel-Ortiz targeted the ICU, Barker said Saturday. Police officers responded to a call to the hospital.
The gunman held a hospital staff member at gunpoint as police officers readied to breach the ICU. The officers attempted to talk to the gunman, Barker said.
At that point, Archangel-Ortiz allegedly came out into the hallway holding at gunpoint a female hospital staff member who also had her hands restrained with zip ties.
"The officers, left with no recourse, did open fire and did shoot and kill Diogenes Archangel-Ortiz," he said.
The gunman also opened fire, striking two other officers who are now in stable condition, Barker said.
A nurse, a doctor and a custodian also were wounded during the attack and are in stable condition, authorities said. The doctor was "grazed," Barker said. A fourth hospital staff member was hurt in a fall.
A UPMC nurse who survived the attack said in a Facebook post Wednesday that she was held against him as a shield at gunpoint, arms zip-tied behind her back, as they walked through a doorway and encountered a wall of armed police officers who had responded to the scene.
Nurse Tosha Trostle wrote that she had begged the attacker to let her go and that he pushed the gun against her neck and spine. While they encountered police, she wrote, “The sound of gunshots rang out and the smell of smoke … the sound of empty shells echoing as the hit the floor. I eventually fell into the floor under the weight of the shooter’s body,” she wrote.
“This not only affected us as staff but our spouses, children, and family whom also have a long road to recovery and yet it will always stay with us … my physical injuries do not even compare fractionally to what injuries are unseen,” Trostle wrote.
The husband of another UPMC Memorial ICU nurse also recounted the harrowing attack in a Facebook post and said the gunman used his wife as a human shield, PennLive reported.
CNN reported that the gunman believed more could have been done to save his terminally ill loved one, who was on life support at UPMC Memorial, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.
Archangel-Ortiz was removed from the hospital by security the previous night after becoming irate and emotionally overwrought following a diagnosis that there was no other treatment available for his loved one, the official said, CNN reported and identified the gunman's family member in the hospital as his wife.
Barker said Saturday the gunman had recently contacted the UPMC Memorial ICU for a "medical purpose involving another individual."
Authorities have not yet officially given a motive for the attack.
A clinician who works at UPMC Memorial Hospital said in a Facebook post that he interacted with the gunman over multiple days prior to the shooting.
“I was there when we delivered the worst news imaginable to him—that his loved one was gone. I saw his devastation firsthand. In that moment, I truly did not see a monster. He was simply broken,” Lester Mendoza, a physician assistant specializing in pulmonary critical care at UPMC, wrote in the Facebook post. “I would have never imagined or expected him to do something like this. But grief, exhaustion, isolation, and a lack of mental health and social support services create cracks that people fall through. And when they do, the consequences can be catastrophic."
Mendoza added, “This isn’t just about one tragic event—it’s about a system that is crumbling under neglect. We are all exhausted. We are all suffering. And if we continuously ignore it, and accept it as the normal, there will be no positive growth or change.”
A former girlfriend of the 49-year-old man told PennLive that he had battled lifelong mental illness, the publication reported.
Mendoza condemned the violence while sharing his opinions about the state of healthcare.
“But we are working in a system that is stretched too thin, the medicines and supplies are too expensive, insurance companies more relentless than ever, unsustainable staffing and turnover, excruciating wait times for care, lack of beds puts stress to move others out to get others in. We are expected to provide limitless care that we would expect to provide our own family, with limited resources. We are asked to carry the weight of life and death, grief and loss, with little support,” he said.
He cited nurses, doctors and healthcare workers often work “understaffed and overworked shifts.”
“The longer we are stretched thin, the more we risk becoming numb, jaded, and detached—not because we don’t care, but because we are drowning,” he said.
The UPMC said in a statement posted to its website Sunday that injured UPMC Memorial staff members are “medically stable and progressing in their recovery," the UPMC said in a statement posted to its website.
"We have provided onsite counseling and Spiritual Care services to staff that will remain available through the upcoming week," the health system said.
Barker, the York County District Attorney, praised UPMC police officers who "rushed in and tried to alleviate any harm."
"They ran into gunfire when other individuals like us get to run away," Barker said Saturday.
"I personally watched surveillance videos, and I was able to hear firsthand interview statements that were made by officers who were present and there and who saw what occurred. I was also privy to receive statements from individuals who work for UPMC. In reviewing all of that evidence, it is absolutely clear and beyond any and all doubt that the officers were justified in taking their action using deadly force," Barker said Saturday.
"Quite frankly, they needed to use deadly force, because, by doing so, they potentially saved even more lives, even as they lost one of their own," he said.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said at the news conference, "Here in York County today, we saw the very best and the very worst of humanity."
He praised the "extraordinary bravery and courage" by the healthcare workers and law enforcement professionals "who ran toward danger to keep people safe."
“Our hearts break at the innocent loss of life," the West York Borough Police Department wrote in a statement posted on Facebook. The department said it "lost a comrade and friend."
"Our community grieves the loss of a hero," the department said.
Violence against healthcare workers is a growing problem. While healthcare workers make up 10% of the workforce, they suffer more nonfatal injuries from workplace violence than workers in any other profession, according to 2024 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"I know that the trauma that the healthcare workers here today had to deal with, it's not something that goes away overnight every day," Shapiro said. "Every day, when you put on your white coat or your uniform of service to others, at this hospital or any hospital across Pennsylvania, you are performing that function because you care about your neighbors and you want to make sure that they are healthy and safe. Something like this should never, ever happen in your place of work. We'll continue to work with you, our state and local leaders, to make sure that you have the resources and the services you need to be able to perform your functions."
Elizabeth Ritter, president of UPMC Harrisburg, West Shore and Community Osteopathic, said at the news conference that UPMC was grateful for law enforcement officers "who responded so bravely, as well as our outstanding leaders and staff who immediately responded and continue to work together to support our employees, our patients and their families."
Barker said the attack occurred "in an area where individuals were being treated. "To the extent that other patients were aware or impacted or affected by what occurred that would be subject to further criminal investigation," he said.