A prosecutor says an officer killed while responding to a Pennsylvania hospital siege last winter was struck by a shotgun blast fired by police that also hit an armed man holding hostages.

The attacker and West York Patrolman Andrew W. Duarte were killed in the gunfire at UPMC Memorial Hospital in York on Feb. 22, while several other officers and hospital employees were injured.

The disclosure that Duarte was killed by shots from fellow police came as York County District Attorney Tim Barker announced the findings of his investigation and pinned blame for Duarte’s death on the attacker.

That man, Diogenes Archangel-Ortiz, 49, was shot as he was attempting to leave the intensive care unit with a zip-tied hospital employee and a gun already emptied of bullets. It was then, Barker said, that officers unleashed a barrage of gunfire.

  • PyroNeurosisEnglish
    3·
    29 days ago

    While usually reserved for people of great importance (aristocracy et al.), it’s viable here. They puffed him up a bit, but the guy’s dead so, w/e.