Nurses' stories recount terror of armed man's attack at Pennsylvania
hospital
 [February 27, 2025]
By MARK SCOLFORO
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A nurse who survived an armed man’s attack on an
intensive care unit in a Pennsylvania hospital said in a Facebook post
on Wednesday that she was held against him as a shield at gunpoint, arms
zip-tied behind her back, as they walked through a doorway and
encountered a phalanx of responding police officers.
Nurse Tosha Trostle wrote that she had begged the attacker to let her go
and that he pushed the gun against her neck and spine. When they
encountered police, she prayed as she heard gunshots and smelled smoke,
then heard bullet casings hitting the floor, she wrote.
“I eventually fell into the floor under the weight of the shooter’s
body. The officers told me to run. I struggled to get out from under
him,” Trostle wrote. “I remember his limp cold hand against my face as I
pushed away with my feet.”
She fell twice trying to get to her feet before an officer guided her
into another room.
Phone and Facebook messages were left for Trostle on Wednesday. A nurse
from the hospital who didn’t want to be identified by name because they
weren’t authorized to discuss the events confirmed the posting was from
Trostle’s Facebook account.
Authorities say Diogenes Archangel-Ortiz, 49, brought a gun and zip ties
to UPMC Memorial Hospital in York on Saturday morning and was holding
hostages when responding officers fatally shot him.
West York Patrolman Andrew Duarte, 30, was shot and killed. Two other
officers and three hospital employees were wounded, authorities said.
Trostle recounted that she had been drawing blood when she heard a
commotion and went into a hallway.
“After all I thought I was responding to a staff assist, patient fall,
one in a dozen possible occurrences; not an active shooter. When I
rounded the corner of the back hall I was met in the distance by the
shooter holding my coworker, Jess, at gunpoint,” she wrote.
Her colleague, Jessica Breighner, was forced to zip-tie her.
“I saw the fear in her eyes, fear does not sound like enough really
though,” Trostle wrote.
The attacker’s shoes became etched into Trostle’s mind as she lay at his
feet, thinking the gun might have jammed and then hearing him reload,
she added.
“So many things happened I cannot recount step by step," she wrote, "but
how I remember those red sneakers."
Jason Huff, Breighner’s partner of more than 20 years, also described
the incident in a separate Facebook post on Wednesday that said the
attacker had pulled the trigger three times with the gun against
Breighner’s head, but it was apparently out of ammunition.
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Law enforcement respond to the scene of a shooting at UPMC Memorial
Hospital in York, Pa. on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. (Sean Simmers/The
Patriot-News via AP)
“That’s when she knew it was time to take her shot,” Huff wrote.
“She broke her zip ties while he reloaded and ran -- thank God.”
Huff told The Associated Press she hopes to talk publicly about it
later, with the others who survived the attack.
Huff wrote on Facebook that before fleeing, Breighner had to “listen
to this criminal call and warn someone to clean out the apartment
and get the jewelry because he’s not coming home and was ready to
die.”
York County District Attorney Tim Barker said Saturday that
Archangel-Ortiz appeared to have had recent contact with the
intensive care unit “for a medical purpose involving another person”
but declined to elaborate.
Asked about the nurses’ accounts, a UPMC spokesperson said the
health system prioritizes safety and privacy but referred questions
to law enforcement.
Trostle said the attacker “hauled me off the floor pushing me into
the adjacent wall,” where Breighner's photo was among pictures of
the group’s leadership on the wall.
“Pushing the gun into my neck and spine. I begged to go home to my
children. He petted my head and promised I would that I was doing
everything right,” Trostle wrote.
She said he directed her to take him to the floor where the most
people were. As they went through a doorway, they encountered what
she called “a wall of armed officers aimed at us.”
After the shooting, she was led down a stairway. In the days since,
the memory has haunted Trostle and her family, she said.
“My physical injuries do not even compare fractionally to what
injuries are unseen,” Trostle wrote. “I live with immense sadness
and guilt of all who responded, their mental and physical injuries.
Especially, brave Officer Andrew Duarte that gave his life to bring
us home.”
Duarte's funeral service is scheduled for Friday in York.
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