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Neighbors say suspect a brooding loner
Thursday, March 02, 2000 By Jan Ackerman, Johnna A. Pro and Lawrence Walsh, Post-Gazette Staff Writers
Strange but harmless.
Until yesterday, that's how property managers at Woodside Garden Apartments in Wilkinsburg regarded tenant Ronald Taylor, who paid his rent on time, complained about apartment maintenance and frequently made racist comments against whites.
Taylor, 39, who lived on Social Security Disability in a fifth-floor apartment at Woodside Garden at 1208 Wood St., was treated for mental illness in the past.
To his neighbors, he was a low-key man who would say hello, but never had an extended conversation.
"He was a quiet man who didn't start any trouble," said George Moon, 40, who lived next door. "I never heard a peep out of him. He kept pretty much to himself. I don't know if he was married or had children." But apartment manager Rebecca Van Kirk frequently saw a different side of Taylor, one that was full of anger with racial overtones.
"He would go on tirades," Van Kirk told KDKA-TV yesterday. "He doesn't like any white people."
Taylor's brother, Chuck Taylor, said his brother was different from his four siblings, who were raised in a God-fearing family by parents who were married for nearly 40 years.
"Ron just went through a lot. Ron had a history of mental problems, but they were never severe," Chuck Taylor told Don Matzat, host of The Great Conversation, a show on Christian radio station WORD-FM.
"He has never harmed anyone. He has never been arrested," Taylor said.
Last night, the Taylor family hired Pittsburgh attorney James M. Ecker to represent Taylor.
Ecker said that after being retained, he spent about an hour with Taylor at the Allegheny County police headquarters where he was being held prior to arraignment.
Ecker would not say what the nature of their conversation was.
"He wrote a note for me to give to his mother. I have no idea what he said," Ecker said.
Ecker said he believed that Taylor attended high school in the city, and apparently earned a General Educational Development certificate.
He said Taylor's family, including his parents, three brothers and one sister, are "nice people."
"We're all just praying that things work out. They feel badly. They feel extremely bad for the victims and so does he," Ecker said.
Police said Taylor was not talking to them.
During his radio interview, Chuck Taylor said his mother and other family members prayed for Ronald and tried to get him to accept Jesus Christ.
"We told him how God loves him, no matter what he goes through in life, but he wasn't ready," Taylor said.
Chuck Taylor, who described himself as a deacon, apologized on the radio to the families of the victims.
"They didn't do anything to Ron. He just had so much anger. He is just angry about a lot of things. He always felt that he got the short end of the stick," Chuck Taylor said.
He also made an appeal for forgiveness.
"I hope the families will forgive him," Chuck Taylor said.
Allegheny County Police Superintendent Thomas Sturgeon said police as of last night did not believe that Taylor had any criminal record although he might have had psychological problems.
"No one seems to know him very well," Sturgeon said. "I think it's just a matter of someone who simply snapped. People say he was mild-mannered, that he wasn't a problem-type person."
Sturgeon said police also have heard that Taylor may have had some personal biases, but even during his questioning last night, he was quiet.
Investigators last night still had not determined how Taylor obtained the 22-caliber handgun he used.
The gun had been sold to a man named Ernest Taylor in 1982.
Ernest Taylor purchased that weapon at Braverman Arms, a gun store in Wilkinsburg. Detectives last night had not determined who Ernest Taylor was or whether he was related to Ronald Taylor. They had not been able to check to see whether Ronald Taylor had a permit to carry the gun.
Wherever residents of Woodside Garden gathered in and around their apartment building last night, their comments about Taylor were almost identical.
Judy Frost, who also lives on the fifth floor, said Taylor moved into the building about a year ago.
"I didn't really know him," Frost said as she sat on the sofa in her living room. "I don't think anyone in the building did. I saw him come and go from time to time.
"This is such a shock," she said. "This was a very nice, quiet, secure building."
Her daughter, Monique Frost, 29, who used to live in the building, said she and Taylor would exchange hellos when they saw each other. "But I never knew his first name until today," she said. "He was always very quiet."
Yvonne Griffin, who lives down the hall from Taylor, believes he frequently locked himself out of his apartment and then damaged the door to get back in. "I remember one time when he broke the door lock to get back in."
Because the air in the soot-covered walls of the hallway outside her apartment was so acrid, she and two friends went to the lobby to talk about Taylor, the fire, the shootings and a day Griffin said she will never forget.
She said smoke alarms in the building and then her apartment alerted her to the fire. "The Wilkinsburg Fire Department did an excellent job, an excellent job. They got here quickly and kept it from getting to my apartment and all the others up here."
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