HARRISBURG, Pa. — 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.
“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.
