Wilkinsburg spree killer dies in prison
Ronald Taylor, convicted of killing three people and injuring two others in racially motivated shootings in Allegheny County in 2000, has died in prison.
Taylor, 63, was sentenced to death in 2002 and died of natural causes on Tuesday at SCI Phoenix in Montgomery County, state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Maria Bivens said.
The morning of March 1, 2000, Taylor, who was Black, shot John Kroll, 59, a maintenance worker fixing his front door at his Wilkinsburg apartment building, after taunting him with racial slurs.
He then set his apartment on fire and walked two blocks away to a Burger King, where he fatally shot Joseph Healy, 71, a former Catholic priest from Wilkinsburg, who was sitting in a booth.
Leaving there, Taylor walked to a McDonald’s nearby, shooting multiple times into a van belonging to Richard Clinger, 59, who was hit and survived but suffered paralysis and brain injuries.
Mr. Clinger’s young daughter jumped from the van and ran to a nearby business to alert them to the shooting.
Taylor went into the McDonald’s and shot the manager, Steven Bostard, 25. Mr. Bostard survived.
Taylor returned to the parking lot and fatally shot Emil Sanielevici, 20, a University of Pittsburgh student who was in the drive-thru line, waiting to pick up food.
All of Taylor’s victims were white.
Taylor then entered a senior hospice center, where he took five people hostage. After two hours of negotiations, Taylor surrendered and no one else was injured.
In Taylor’s apartment, where he lived alone and unemployed, police found a suicide note and a statement about the effects of his mental illness, his mistreatment by the mental health care system, and his hatred of whites, Jews, police and others.
In November 2000, Taylor was convicted of 46 criminal charges. Prosecutors sought the death penalty, and in January 2002, he was formally sentenced to death.