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.

A mass shooting at UPMC Memorial Center has left the gunman and a police officer killed and multiple hospital staff injured.

Authorities described the shooting of a gunman who opened fire at a Pennsylvania hospital as “absolutely justified, beyond any and all doubt.”

The man who authorities say entered a Pennsylvania hospital with zip ties and a pistol over the weekend had recent contact with the hospital's intensive care unit, where he took staff members hostage and was killed in a shootout that left a police officer dead and others injured.

Authorities say a gunman entered a Pennsylvania hospital’s intensive care unit and took staff members hostage before he was killed by police in a shootout that also left an officer dead

A gunman who held medical staff hostage before killing a police officer and wounding five others at a hospital in south-central Pennsylvania Saturday is believed to have visited the facility in the days leading up to the incident,

The suspect, Diogenes Archangel Ortiz, entered the hospital with handgun and zip ties Saturday morning and took several staff members hostage, state officials said.