Investigators are trying to determine why a man targeted a Pennsylvania hospital, taking workers inside the intensive care unit hostage and holding one staff member at gunpoint as her hands were bound by zip ties.

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,

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

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A funeral service will be held later this week for a Pennsylvania police officer shot and killed while responding to a hospital intensive care unit where authorities said a gunman had shot three hospital employees and taken staff members hostage last weekend.

Authorities say a gunman entered a Pennsylvania hospital’s intensive care unit and took staff members hostage before he was killed by police.

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.