'Light of My Life': Slain Pa. Police Officer's Mother Mourns Only Child

West York Borough Police Officer Andrew Duarte and his girlfriend, Zanna Dutton, were texting each other Saturday before he received a call to report to UPMC Memorial Hospital in West Manchester Township, York County.

It seemed like just another call, like any other day.

The last text she received from Duarte, 30, was around 10:40 a.m. That’s when Diogenes Archangel-Ortiz, 49, walked into the UPMC hospital with a bag containing a handgun and zip ties.

Dutton told PennLive she started to become concerned for Duarte’s safety after seeing reports circulate on Facebook of an active shooter at a hospital and an officer who was shot.

“At that point it never crossed my mind that he would’ve been the officer that was killed,” Dutton said. “But as soon as I saw it on the news, I knew he would be there right in the front doing everything he could to keep people safe.”

Archangel-Ortiz shot three UPMC staff members and took multiple staff members hostage in the hospital’s intensive care unit, investigators said.

Officials said the incident led to a shootout with police, during which Archangel-Ortiz shot three of the responding police officers, killing Duarte. Archangel-Ortiz was also killed.

“He was dependable, caring, loving, a sweet child, he was my only child,” said Duarte’s mother Nancy Duarte Matarese. “He was the light of my life.”

Family members said Duarte was described as a “morally sound” guy from Oakland, California. Duarte and his mother moved to central Pennsylvania in 2013.

Duarte Matarese said she always saw a military career for him, which matched his personality of liking order, rules, and his love for the history of World War II. Duarte was intelligent and had a deep passion for learning.

“He knew something about everything,” Duarte Matarese said. “Doesn’t matter what you asked or talked about. He knew something about it.”

Duarte took the law enforcement route after graduating from the California University of Pennsylvania in criminal justice in 2016.

While in college, he started his law enforcement career in 2016 as a seasonal police officer in Ocean City Maryland.

He also graduated from a police academy in Denver, Colorado, which was where he began working as a police officer and on the DUI Enforcement Unit for the Denver Police Department from 2017 until 2022. He then moved to West York Borough to be closer to his mother in 2022.

She said Duarte was fun to be around. Duarte also was an attentive listener who loved animals, enjoyed hiking and was a pilot. His pilot license allowed him to do recreational flying.

“He had a dry, witty, sense of humor,” Duarte Matarese said. “He wasn’t an outgoing person; he was quiet by nature. But if you listened to him, he was really funny. And he was a good listener, he always showed that, and he cared about what you said.”

The last time she saw Duarte was when he stopped by her home for breakfast two days before the shooting. Duarte Matarese said they always did early morning walks together, but they didn’t have time due to her work schedule that day.

“When he was leaving, I hugged him and kissed him goodbye,” she said. “As always, I told him to be smart and be safe at work this weekend and I love you. And he said, ‘yep, and I love you too.’”

“Tell people you love them,” she said. “We never walked away from each other without saying that.”

Duarte’s girlfriend said their relationship blossomed quickly after meeting each other through an online dating app.

“We matched on three different dating apps, and I ghosted him twice,” Dutton said. “But he was persistent. After the third time, I was like ‘ok I should probably give this guy a shot. And when we met, we just clicked. We joked about it a lot.”

Duarte also was drawn to her job as a garbage truck driver and her unique glasses, Dutton said.

“It was one of the things that bonded us because he knew more about garbage trucks than I did, and it was so cool because I could talk to him about work, and he would know exactly what I was talking about,” she said. “He loved it and it was so nice because most people don’t know what I’m talking about.”

Dutton said her friends always called him Spiderman because of his similar looks to Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man movie. He also was “a good role model and friend” towards her children, she said.

Wanting a lasting a tribute to Duarte, Dutton called a tattoo artist she knew through a friend. On Sunday, Eve Grant from Immortal Ink Tattoo in York came in from her day off to create a tattoo of Duarte’s police badge on Dutton’s left arm. Dutton said the tattoo blew up on Facebook.

She said Duarte was respectful, sweet, and charming in their relationship.

“He was a wonderful person, and he made everybody feel incredibly loved,” she said. He was very kind and generous, and he made me feel loved every day. He was very special to me.”

Duarte Matarese told PennLive she appreciates the kind support from community members, their church, local businesses and West York Borough police. A fundraiser has been set up to help the family, which you can view at this link.

“He was a wonderful son,” said Duarte Matarese. “He was a joy and a blessing every single day and this situation is tragic. It’s incredibly sad. But there is evil in this world and there will always be evil in this world, which is why we need police to protect people.”

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