A Pennsylvania police officer killed in an armed siege at a York hospital two months ago was killed by a shotgun blast from a fellow officer that also killed the gunman.
York County District Attorney Tim Barker said thatWest York Patrolman Andrew W. Duarte was killed by the shotgun blast and a second officer was wounded by the same gunshot, WCAU reported.
Diogenes Archangel-Ortiz arrived at UPMC Memorial Hospital’s ICU armed with a handgun and carrying zipties on February 22, as CrimeOnline reported. The gunman held staffers hostage and fired at hospital police before multiple law enforcement agencies responded. When law enforcement arrived and attempted to engage the suspect, he ordered the officers back while holding a staffer and gunpoint.
The officers retreated and attempted to negotiate with him, but he came out, still holding the staffer at gunpoint, with her “hands tied with the aforementioned zipties.” The officers responded and shot and killed the suspect.
No patients were hurt in the melee, but three hospital employees — a doctor, a nurse, and a custodian — and two other officers were shot. Those five people survived.
In his report on the shooting, Barker said that the attack on the hospital came after Archangel-Ortiz, 49, learned that a woman he lived with had died following treatment there.
Barker said the officers had “no recourse” but to open fire when the gunman appeared with a hostage in zipties. He did not comment on the use of a shotgun in a crowded area.
