Pa. Hostage-Taker Surrenders After Fatal Shootings

By Peter Slevin and Jaclyn Sanderson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 2, 2000; Page A02 WILKINSBURG, Pa., March 1—A gunman set fire to his apartment, killed two men and critically wounded three others this morning before taking hostages, the second consecutive day that sudden gunfire rattled an American community and jumped into national prominence.

Suspect Ronald Taylor, 39, released the hostages and surrendered. He is awaiting arraignment as investigators try to piece together his angry day and decipher his motive.

A woman told WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh that a black man entered her apartment and announced, "I'll be dead in 10 minutes." She described him as saying, "Well, I'm not gonna hurt any black people, I'm gonna kill all white people." All five victims were white.

Wilkinsburg Police Chief Gerald Brewer declined to respond to questions about race as a possible motive at an afternoon news conference. Nor would he reveal the race of the victims, which was confirmed by hospital officials.

The shootings--centered on a pair of fast-food restaurants before the lunch hour--followed by 24 hours the shooting of one first-grader by another in Mount Morris Township, Mich. In that case, prosecutors are seeking a fugitive who kept under his pillow the stolen .32-caliber pistol that they say became the 6-year-old's homicide weapon.

Nationwide, the news media and pundits dissected the latest gun violence as President Clinton spoke of the "terrible shooting" and called on Congress to limit access to handguns. He said the shootings show "that we simply haven't done everything we can do to keep guns away from criminals and children."

Taylor's outburst allegedly started this morning when he shot maintenance man Joseph Healy, 71, at the apartment building where he lived in Wilkinsburg, a down-at-the-heel community along Pittsburgh's eastern border. Healy, who was shot in the head, was pronounced dead tonight at Mercy Hospital, said spokeswoman Linda Ross.

After shooting Healy, police said, the suspect set fire to his apartment and headed toward the restaurants, shooting one man at a Burger King and three at a McDonald's.

In the McDonald's parking lot, "Me and my stepfather were sitting in the truck and this guy just walked up and started shooting. I thought maybe he was going to ask for directions or something," witness Candy Zambo told the Associated Press. She said her stepfather, Richard Clinger, was shot. Police, who believe Taylor fired a .22-caliber weapon, did not release further names or identifying details of the victims.

Taylor soon fled McDonald's, firing two shots at police as he ran into a nearby house to reload, Brewer said. Police then chased him into a nearby office building, whose tenants include day-care centers for children and the elderly.

The authorities led 125 people--including clusters of children and toddlers--to safety while negotiators tried to reason with the gunman, who had occupied a room with five disabled people. Brewer said officers later confronted Taylor in a hallway, where he put the gun to his mouth and threatened to shoot.

"I'm already dead anyway," Brewer quoted Taylor as saying.

The gunman then surrendered without a struggle.

At one point, nearly 50 doctors, operating room nurses and social workers crowded the emergency room at Presbyterian University Hospital after answering an urgent call for help. Four gunshot victims arrived by ambulance at roughly five-minute intervals, said surgeon Keith Clancy, who treated three of the four.

Each man had been shot once in the upper body--three in the head, one in the neck.

The first patient, shot just above his breastbone, arrived with no pulse. Doctors tried for 15 minutes to revive him before giving up. The second patient had a wound in his forehead. A bullet pierced his skull and lodged in the back of his brain.

"We do not think he will survive. He has an overwhelming head injury," Clancy said. "We put him on a breathing machine. Unfortunately, with the devastation the bullet caused, there's nothing surgically that anyone's able to do."

The prognosis for the third patient remains unclear. Shot in the right temple, he was able to talk when paramedics delivered him, but was not entirely lucid. Continued bleeding in his brain was likely to cloud his chances, Clancy said. The fourth patient, shot in the face, was alert when he arrived and did not need emergency surgery.

Slevin reported from Washington, Sanderson from Wilkinsburg.

© Copyright 2000 The Washington Post Company

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