Anchorage Daily News

An ex-employee who stormed into Soldotna's Central Peninsula General Hospital firing shots this morning was shot and killed by Alaska State Troopers.

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Joseph Marchetti, age 48, entered Central Peninsula Hospital in Soldotna Wednesday morning, November 26, 2008, armed with a gun and began shooting. Law enforcement officials responded and engaged in a stand-off with Mr. Marchetti before shooting him.

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Mike Webb, Central Peninsula Hospital Information Services director, was shot and killed on Wednesday at the hospital in Soldotna by former employee Joseph Marchetti.

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Margaret Stroup, Central Peninsula Hospital director of imaging services, was shot and injured on Wednesday at the hospital in Soldotna by former employee Joseph Marchetti.

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One of his victims, Mike Webb, has also died, said hospital spokeswoman Bonnie Nichols.

A second victim, Margaret Stroup, was shot several times and is still in surgery but her condition has been upgraded to stable, Nichols said. "Things are looking better (for her)."

Both victims were hospital employees.

The gunman, Joseph A. Marchetti, 48, was shot during a standoff with police and troopers in the hospital parking lot. He was pronounced dead in the hospital's emergency department, Nichols said.

Webb died in surgery shortly before noon.

Webb's daughter, Christina Webb, said in a phone interview from Soldotna her family was reeling from the shock of losing her father as family members were being informed of the death and made plans to get to town.

"We're just consistently praying and we're just consistently keeping the faith and we know that God's going to make something good come out of this," Christina Webb said. "It's a terrible tragedy, but we know that God's going to turn it into something good and all we can do is just be faithful and keep praying, and we just ask for everybody to pray for us."

Marchetti, a former employee who recently lost his job, entered the hospital shortly before 10 a.m. armed with a rifle and a handgun and opened fire, according to troopers.

Nichols said Marchetti, a digital imaging technician, picked up his last paycheck Tuesday.

Stroup, 57, is the hospital's director of radiology; Webb headed information services. They were two of Marchetti's supervisors.

Troopers and Soldotna police were called at about 10 a.m. and surrounded Marchetti in the hospital parking lot, where a standoff ensued. A troopers spokeswoman said three troopers fired their weapons.

Marchetti was taken to the hospital's emergency room, where he was declared dead, Nichols said.

Marchetti worked in an Omaha, Neb., medical center from October 2001 to October 2007. Nebraska Medical Center spokeswoman Andrea McMaster said Marchetti decided to leave the job on his own in 2007 because he was moving.

McMaster said Marchetti did information technology work at the hospital. He helped maintain databases for the hospital's cardiac service line. No other details about Marchetti's work at the Nebraska Medical Center were immediately available, McMaster said.

According to a hospital newsletter, Stroup came to Alaska from Virginia, where she worked at a 137-bed facility, in September 2007.

As information services director, Webb, who began working at the hospital this year, was working on plans to offer wireless Internet services at the hospital, he said in the newsletter.

Webb, 55, held dual degrees in computer science and mathematics from the University of Texas at Tyler and previously worked for 13 years as the information systems director at the Southern Tennessee Medical Center, the newsletter said.

A father of three children, Webb and his wife, Valerie, were "ready for adventure" and decided to move to Alaska to fulfill that wish, according to the newsletter.

Soldotna schools were locked down during the incident this morning, and the Kenai Peninsula Borough activated its automatic emergency system warning people to avoid the area and stay in their homes. The borough sent out a second message at 10:50 a.m. saying the situation "has been resolved."

Kenai Schools Superintendent Donna Peterson said Soldotna schools were locked down from 10:25 a.m. to 10:40 a.m.

As gunfire erupted and chaos broke out, surrounding medical facilities in the district like the Cottonwood Health Center locked their doors while the shooter remained at large.

Though a fair distance from the hospital, the Cottonwood Center had some of its staff working and concern for their safety lingered for some time after the gunman was shot because of the ensuing uncertainty, said Debbie Standefer, director of operations. One of the doctors, an obstetrician, was in the middle of delivering a baby when shots broke out, she said.

"It sounds like everybody from the OB department was sort of collectively scooted back, kind of out of the way, taken out of harm's way," she said. "It took us a while to actually connect with them."

Word of the shooting flew through Soldotna this morning. Darla Vanderwall said she saw police surrounding a man dressed in black in the parking lot of the hospital.

The man had "a huge gun," she said. Police officers had weapons drawn.

Vanderwall said she heard about the incident as she and her son were leaving the Soldotna post office.

"A gentleman told me not to go to the hospital because a guy was shooting people," she said.

Vanderwall said she saw the situation in the hospital parking lot as she drove past.

"I just totally panicked," she said.

Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said the three troopers who fired their weapons will be placed on administrative leave for three days, per department policy. Their names will be released after 24 hours.

Daily News reporter Sean Cockerham and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact reporter Don Hunter at 907-257-4341.

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