Accused Killer of 3 Is Linked to Racist Writing (fwd)

Stephen E Philion philion at hawaii.edu
Thu Mar 2 23:54:57 PST 2000


NY Times March 3, 2000

Accused Killer of 3 Is Linked to Racist Writing

______________________________________________________________

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

W ILKINSBURG, Pa., March 2 -- A black man accused of killing three

people and wounding two in a shooting rampage had anti-white

writings in his apartment and singled out whites during the attack,

reassuring a black woman in his path, "Not you, sister," the

authorities and witnesses said today.

A third victim of the rampage died tonight; two others remain in

critical condition.

"The general tenor was that he wasn't shooting anybody but whites,"

Lt. John Brennan said today of the man, Ronald Taylor.

Tonight, the police charged Mr. Taylor with ethnic intimidation,

Pennsylvania's term for a hate crime, accusing him of setting fire

to his apartment and shooting the men with malicious intent "toward

white males," court documents said. The Federal Bureau of

Investigation also said it had initiated a civil rights

investigation.

District Justice Alberta Thompson asked Mr. Taylor if he had any

history of mental illness. He replied yes. No details were

available.

Mr. Taylor was initially charged with two counts of criminal

homicide, an umbrella charge covering murder and manslaughter in

Pennsylvania. The police took him before Judge Thompson tonight and

charged him with the hate crime, five counts of aggravated assault,

one count of arson, a firearms violation and one count of causing a

catastrophe. He is being held without bail on the homicide charges.

Mr. Taylor, a 39-year-old jobless man, is accused of shooting a

maintenance worker at his apartment building and four other people

at two fast-food restaurants on Wednesday in working-class

Wilkinsburg, a town of 22,000 six miles east of Pittsburgh. All

five victims were white men.

Mr. Brennan said that when police searched Mr. Taylor's home on

Wednesday night, they found anti-white writings.

Joyce Ambrose, who was briefly held hostage by Mr. Taylor said he

told another black woman, "Not you, sister," as he threatened to

shoot others.

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