Officer portrays proud killer

A Wilkinsburg police officer testified Monday that Ronald Taylor expressed pride in himself after he killed three men and wounded two others in a March 1, 2000, shooting spree.

Officer Richard Schneeman, who took custody of Taylor after his surrender at a Wilkinsburg medical office following a three-hour standoff, said he asked Taylor if he wanted anything to cover his face as he was taken to a police car in the presence of news cameras.

"I'm proud of what I did. I don't need anything to cover my face," Schneeman quoted Taylor, 41, of Wilkinsburg, as saying.

Prosecutors showed the jury a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review photograph of Taylor grinning with his eyebrows raised and news media videotape of him smiling and winking at the camera.

Before Chief Trial Deputy Edward Borkowski rested the prosecution's case, the jury read a suicide note and hate-inspired writings laced with profanity found in Taylor's burned-out apartment.

Allegheny County Homicide Detective Regis Kelly found the materials, including signs of "666" on the walls, a "Satan List" of targets, and Taylor's writings on various topics titled: "Anti-white, Anti-Jew, Anti-Asian, Anti-Christ, Anti-Uncle Toms, Anti-Feds, Anti-News Media and Anti-Italians," in a backpack.

The trial before Common Pleas Judge Lawrence O'Toole is scheduled to resume today. The courts normally would be closed for Election Day.

Borkowski is seeking a first-degree murder verdict and the death penalty for shootings he contends were racially motivated. Taylor is black, and the victims were white.

Defense attorney John Elash, who is presenting an insanity defense, said he will call one witness today, Dr. Horacio Fabrega Jr., a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Elash has described Fabrega as an expert on cultural diversity psychiatry, dealing with Taylor's problems functioning in a pluralistic society that "evolved to such an extreme that he was crazy at least."

Borkowski said the prosecution will present Dr. Michael Welner, a New York City psychiatrist, on Wednesday to rebut Fabrega's testimony.

Sgt. John Fisher, a Pittsburgh police detective who negotiated Taylor's surrender, testified that Taylor expressed concern for his elderly mother and his own safety.

During the standoff in a Wilkinsburg medical building, Fisher, now with the narcotics squad and a trained hostage negotiator, testified that Taylor said: "I have to kill myself. I don't want my mother to see me in prison for the rest of my life."

He said Taylor alternately threatened to shoot himself or Fisher.

When Fisher asked Taylor his name, the defendant said, "You can call me John." Asked what his last name was, Taylor replied, "Doe," but later said his name was Ronald Taylor.

At one time during often profanity-filled and hostile exchanges, Taylor told Fisher, "I torched my apartment. Did I do a good job?"

Fisher said Taylor wanted some water, but rejected an opened bottle, saying he feared someone put something in it. He finally drank from another bottle and smoked cigarettes.

When Taylor said he wanted his medication, Fisher asked him if he was on Prozac, an anti-depressant. Taylor said he wanted medicine for a skin condition.

At another point, Taylor asked about the condition of "the old guy," referring to Joseph Healy, 71, of Wilkinsburg, a retired Roman Catholic priest and a noted storyteller, who died after being shot in the head at Burger King. Fisher said he told Taylor he didn't know the condition of those he shot.

Fisher said Taylor told him to tell John DeWitt, 64, a maintenance man he had targeted at Taylor's apartment building but missed in the rampage, that "he's lucky I didn't get him today."

Fisher, who is white, said Taylor went from expressing hatred for white police officers to asking him to stick around after he surrendered.

"I don't want anyone to hurt me," Fisher quoted Taylor as saying.

Fisher said Taylor appeared to be lucid and aware during the negotiations.

Elash asked whether Fisher had questioned Taylor about Prozac "because he was acting crazy." Fisher said Taylor told him he had mental problems since he was young.

After the shooting spree, Taylor ran to the Penn-West Building, where he later surrendered, but not before threatening Medical Office clerk Patty Papenmeier, licensed practical nurse Deborah Nicomede, nurse Joyce Ambrose and Dr. David Freeman.

Papenmeier testified Taylor told her and other office workers he had one bullet left and taunted them by asking, "which one of you should I kill next."

At one point, a black employee came along and Taylor said, "You're OK, sister. Get out of here," Papenmeier said.

The afternoon session was delayed for 75 minutes because Taylor was accidentally hit with a chemical spray when deputy sheriffs broke up a fight between two other inmates in the holding cell in the Old County Jail. Deputy sheriffs said Taylor was not involved in the fight but needed a change of clothes as a result.

Robert Baird can be reached at (412) 391-8650.