Police Officer Killed in Active Assailant Incident at Pennsylvania Hospital

By Claire Meyer

24 February 2025

A man entered a Pennsylvania hospital on 22 February with zip ties and a handgun, which he used to take staff members hostage, kill a police officer, and injure a doctor, nurse, custodian, and two other officers. The attacker—identified as 49-year-old Diogenes Archangel-Ortiz—was killed by law enforcement while he was holding a hospital employee hostage at gunpoint.

Hospital security officers responded promptly to the incident, but the attacker opened fire on them, York County District Attorney Tim Barker said during a news conference. The security team called for backup from other law enforcement agencies.

The attacker appeared to have visited the UPMC Memorial Hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) earlier in the week for a medical reason involving another person, Barker said. A senior law enforcement official told ABC News that the attacker was upset over what he perceived as a lack of care for a terminal family member who had been in the hospital’s ICU. The family member died within the last week.

According to surveillance video and witness statements, it appears that the attacker intentionally targeted workers in the ICU, the Associated Press reported.

Andrew Duarte, 30, of the West York Borough Police Department, was the officer killed in the attack. The other victims are in stable condition.

Workplace violence in healthcare is unfortunately frequent. Healthcare and social assistance employees accounted for 72.8 percent of attacks on private sector workers that required days away from work, job restriction, or transfer in 2021 and 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

This isn’t a United States-specific problem. Worldwide, between 8 and 38 percent of healthcare workers experience physical violence at some point in their careers, primarily perpetrated by patients and visitors, according to the World Health Organization. This is likely an undercount—healthcare employees are less likely to report workplace violence and harassment and less likely to press charges, studies found.

Workplace violence and harassment have had significant effects on healthcare workers’ mental health and well-being, according to 2023 numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Healthcare workers who experienced harassment at work were significantly more likely to report burnout, depression, or anxiety compared to workers who had not been harassed.

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