Five people were hurt and one police officer was killed by a gunman at UPMC Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania on Saturday. The gunman thought that more could have been done to save his wife, who was on life support for a terminal illness, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.
An official said that Diogenes Archangel-Ortiz, 49, was taken out of the hospital by security the previous night because he had become angry and upset after being told that his wife could not get any other treatment. It’s not clear if she’s dead or not.
At a news conference on Saturday, York County District Attorney Tim Barker said that Archangel-Ortiz had “contact earlier in the week in the ICU for a medical purpose involving another person.” However, on Monday, his office refused to give any more information.
Archangel-Ortiz went back to the hospital on Saturday morning with a backpack containing a gun, zip ties, and duct tape. He held hospital staff hostage before cops shot and killed him.
When the shooter started fire, he hit three police officers and killed one of them. Officer Andrew Duarte of the West York Borough Police Department was later identified as the victim.
The York County Coroner’s Office said in a news release shared on social media on Monday that the 30-year-old police officer was killed. The news statement said that Duarte died after being shot in the chest.
A service to honor Duarte’s life will be held at Living Word Community Church in Red Lion, Pennsylvania, on Friday, February 28. This was stated in an obituary published in The York Dispatch on Monday. In addition to his parents, Duarte is left by his girlfriend and a large group of extended family members.
Barker says that a doctor, a nurse, and a custodian in the urgent care unit were all shot, and a fourth worker was hurt when they fell. On Sunday, the hospital said in a statement that they were “medically stable and making progress in their recovery.”
A spokeswoman for UPMC Memorial, Susan Manko, told CNN that no patients were hurt.
The Pennsylvania State Police are in charge of the probe, with help from the York County District Attorney’s Office.
A spokesperson for the state police said that they would not share any more information until the investigation was over. They did say that the whole incident would be looked into, though.
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