Hero cop in chaotic PA hospital hostage situation was killed by friendly fire: officials

The hero cop in the Pennsylvania hostage situation in February was killed by friendly fire, cops said.The same shotgun blast that killed Officer Andrew Duarte, 30, also killed gunman Diogenes Archangel-Ortiz, 49, who held his weapon to a hospital worker’s head and threatened to “blow her head off,” authorities said. Archangel-Ortiz didn’t shoot that woman but wounded a doctor, a nurse, a custodian, and two other officers leading up to the confrontation with police, York County District Attorney Tim Barker said at a press conference.Barker said Archangel-Ortiz, 49, “unleashed a torrent of evil” when he entered the UMPC Memorial Hospital in York on Feb.22 with a bag containing a 9mm Taurus handgun and zip ties in a suicidal thirst for revenge. Barker said he refused to use the term “friendly fire” because it was legally meaningless and it would be “shallow and trite.”New details emerged as Barker released the findings of a two-month investigation into the hostage situation and shooting Wednesday. The bloody siege began when Archangel-Ortiz arrived at the hospital in an Uber from a nearby Walmart where he had just purchased zip ties, a knife, spray paint and lemonade. Archangel-Ortiz pretended he wanted to talk about the death of his girlfriend, then began taking hostages, Barker said. At 10:51 a.m., Duarte and another officer arrived at the hospital. Archangel-Ortiz told a hospital staffer, “It’s 11:02.

Tell them they have until 11:25 or there are going to be bodies,” according to Barker.During the middle of the standoff the perp called his brother. “Tell everybody I love them.This is what I want.

This is how I’m going out,” Barker said he told his brother. Barker said Archangel-Ortiz shoved a hostage through the ICU doors with the gun pointed at her head.Police officers moved back, Barker said, and looked for “a clear and present opportunity to strike the actor and not strike the hostage.”  An officer fired a s...