Pennsylvania hospital shooting: Police officer killed, several others wounded

A shooter opened fire at a central Pennsylvania hospital Saturday morning, killing a police officer and wounding several others.

The incident happened at UPMC Memorial, a 104-bed hospital just outside the city of York. Authorities said the shooter also shot and wounded two other police officers and three members of the hospital’s staff. Another UPMC staff member was injured in a fall.

The shooting follows several other fatal shootings at hospitals in recent years, and doctors and nurses have urged policymakers to take more steps to keep them safe.

Police killed the shooter and officials said the use of lethal force was justified and likely saved other lives. Authorities said the suspect entered the hospital Saturday with a bag carrying a handgun and zip ties.

Andrew Duarte of the West York Borough Police Department was shot and killed by the suspect, authorities said.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro praised Duarte as “the best of us.” He also commended the bravery of other officers and the hospital staff.

“Let it not be lost on anyone, the act of extraordinary bravery and courage by the healthcare workers here, by the law enforcement professionals, the state and local and here at the hospital level, who ran toward danger to keep people safe. I know that because of their work, lives were saved here at UPMC Memorial. I know that because they answered the call and ran toward danger, lives were saved,” Shapiro said.

A UPMC Memorial doctor was “grazed,” York County District Attorney Tim Barker said at a news briefing Saturday afternoon. The other UPMC staffers who were shot, a nurse and a custodian, were in stable condition Saturday, he said.

The officers who were wounded by gunfire were officers with the Northern York Regional and Springettsbury police departments. Both are in stable condition, Barker said.

No patients at UPMC Memorial were injured in the event, officials said. UPMC said Saturday that the campus is secure.

“UPMC is grateful to all the law enforcement officers, and to our staff who courageously ensured their own safety and the safety of our patients and visitors,” the system said in a message on its website. “Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone exposed to this terrible event.”

Five victims were treated at WellSpan York Hospital, a WellSpan spokesperson said.

‘A grave harm’

Barker said at the news conference that the shooting took place “in an area where individuals were being treated.”

Barker said the suspect, Diogenes Archangel-Ortiz, 49, had been in contact with the hospital’s ICU for a medical purpose involving another individual. “This did appear to be targeted at the ICU,” Barker said.

Barker said Archangel-Ortiz was holding a UPMC staff member at gunpoint, and the staffer’s hands were tied. Police officers tried to speak with Archangel-Ortiz but “were left with no recourse and did open fire,” Barker said.

“It is absolutely clear and beyond any and all doubt that the officers were justified in taking their action and using deadly force,” Barker said. “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.”

The governor and district attorney said that the hospital staff would need support in the coming weeks and months.

“I know that the trauma that the healthcare workers here today had to deal with, it's not something that goes away overnight,” Shapiro said. “Every day when you put on your white coat or your uniform of service to others here in this wonderful hospital, or any hospital across Pennsylvania, you are performing that function because you care about your neighbors.”

“We need to rally around our healthcare workers in York County,” Barker said. “They have suffered a grave harm, an unwarranted harm, and an unnecessary harm.”

The governor said he had been in touch with the White House. Shapiro thanked President Trump and his administration for their concern.

Shapiro said he had been in contact with Leslie Davis, president and CEO of UPMC. “I know that the hospital and the health system will provide whatever resources that you need in order to make sure you are able to heal,” Shapiro said.

Elizabeth Ritter, president of UPMC Harrisburg, UPMC West Shore, UPMC Community General, and UPMC Carlisle, thanked law enforcement officers for their response at the news briefing.

“We're grateful today to all 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,” Ritter said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who was exposed to this terrible event, and we are so grateful for the outpouring of support that we’ve received from so many of our colleagues here.”

The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania offered a message of support after the shooting.

““Hospitals are places of healing and hope. They should not be scenes of senseless violence. Our hearts are with everyone affected by the tragic shooting today at UPMC Memorial,” the group said in a statement.

Fatal shootings at hospitals

Authorities aptly described the shooting at UPMC Memorial as tragic, but it is not unique. Several fatal shootings have occurred in hospitals over the past few years, including the killing of a New Hampshire hospital security guard in November 2023.

An unarmed security guard was fatally shot in the maternity ward of an Oregon hospital in August 2023. A hand surgeon was shot and killed in an orthopedic clinic in Tennessee in July 2023. An Indiana police officer was shot and killed by a suspect accused of domestic violence in Perry County Memorial Hospital in southern Indiana. Police fatally shot the suspect in that incident.

A CDC employee was fatally shot at a medical complex owned by Northside Hospital in Atlanta in May 2023. Four others were wounded in the shooting.

A nurse and a social worker were fatally shot at Methodist Dallas Medical Center in Dallas, Texas in October 2022. Four people were killed in a shooting at a medical building on the campus of the Saint Francis Health System in Tulsa, Oklahoma in June 2022.

While such shootings are rare, doctors and nurse say they are routinely confronting violence. Nationwide, more than two nurses are assaulted every hour, and 57 assaults on nurses occur each day, according to a report from Press Ganey.

More than half of all emergency nurses (56%) say they’ve been assaulted or threatened with violence in the previous 30 days, according to a survey last year by the Emergency Nurses Association.