The officer was killed Saturday after responding to a shooting at UPMC Memorial Hospital, just outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. There, the gunman took several hostages and injured at least five people before being shot dead.
West York Borough Police Officer Andrew Duarte, 30, died at the scene. The gunman was identified by authorities as Diogenes Archangel Ortiz, 49. The motivation for filming has not been released.
“I’ve been crushed. I’m devastated. Duarte’s girlfriend, Zanna Morris, said on a Saturday night vigil outside the West York district police station.
Morris subtly shed candles to his family and colleagues, telling him that Duarte saved others and died.
“I was told he saved my life today,” she said. “Many lives were saved because of his actions.”
Authorities responded to the incident around 11am on Saturday, with police radio calls reporting that at least two officers were shot dead and the shooter was down.
“This morning, police responded to UPMC Hospital in West Manchester Township due to an aggressive threat. The threat is now neutralised. Ted Czech, spokesman for York County’s Office of Emergency Management, said , states:
At an afternoon press conference, York County District Attorney Tim Barker said the archangel would enter the hospital with a bag containing a handgun and a zip tie and head to the intensive care unit.
“(Archangel-Ortiz) has acquired hostage members for the UPMC staff. In total, he drained firearms and attacked three members of the UPMC staff,” Barker said. “One was a grazing doctor and the other was a nurse and a custodian, and at this point I was in stable condition.”
UPMC confirmed that the patient was not physically harmed. At least three medical staff workers and two other law enforcement members were shot. All injured people are in stable condition.
Duarte was a law enforcement veteran who joined the West York Borough Police Department in 2022 five years later at the Denver Police Department in Colorado, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro praised Duarte’s life, describing the attacks on police and healthcare workers as “the act of a co-ill.”
“Tonight we pray for this community, especially the Dualte family. “And I will offer my blessings and my wife, Larry, our first lady, our family, and the whole of Pennsylvania. Masu.”
In recent years, there have been several filming incidents at medical centers and hospitals. According to the CDC, American healthcare workers are some of the most likely to suffer non-fatal injuries compared to other occupations.
Morris is still working on Duarte’s death while local and federal law enforcement is on the scene under investigation.
“I’m proud, but I’m also mad that it had to be him,” she said.
Samantha Way contributed.
