Diogenes Archangel-Ortiz, 49, carried a pistol and zip ties into the intensive care unit at UPMC Memorial Hospital in southern Pennsylvania's York County and took staff members hostage Saturday before he was killed in a shootout with police, officials said.
Such violence at hospitals is on the rise, often in emergency departments but also maternity wards and intensive care units, hospital security consultant Dick Sem said.
A man who took hostages in a Pennsylvania hospital during a shooting that killed a police officer and wounded five other people highlights the rising violence against U.S. healthcare workers and the challenge of protecting them.
— In 2023, a gunman killed a security guard and wounded a hospital worker in a Portland, Oregon, hospital's maternity unit before being killed by police in a confrontation elsewhere.
The man apparently intentionally targeted the hospital after he was in contact with the intensive care unit earlier in the week for medical care involving someone else, according to the York County district attorney.
