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City police officer talks suspect into surrendering
Thursday, March 02, 2000 By Cindi Lash, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Cornered by police at the end of a hall, Ronald Taylor had nowhere left to run and no wish to live.
Waving a loaded revolver and shoving its barrel down his throat, Taylor insisted that he'd kill himself to spare his beloved mother the pain of seeing her son in prison.
He paced. He rambled. He admitted he'd shot five people and tried to shoot a few others before he'd holed up in Wilkinsburg's Penn West Building.
But 40 feet away at the other end of the hall, Pittsburgh police Sgt. John Fisher poked his head out of an office doorway and implored Taylor to slow down and think again. No matter how bad things are, Fisher asked Taylor, wouldn't your mother rather see you, her son, alive and safe?
For two hours yesterday, Fisher argued, pleaded and cajoled Taylor to give up his gun to police who'd swarmed to surround him after his shooting spree left two people dead and three seriously injured. A trained hostage negotiator, Fisher was tapped to communicate with Taylor and, if possible, to persuade him to give himself up without hurting himself or anyone else.
While hundreds of police, emergency crews and worried bystanders waited on the streets outside, Taylor glared at, swore at and finally grew comfortable enough with Fisher to confide that he was scared and confused. Come out and let me help you, Fisher urged. Finally at 2:15 p.m., Taylor agreed.
"I have to tell you, I was relieved," Fisher said yesterday after Taylor walked down the hall into police custody. "You always know it could go the other way."
Fisher, who is assigned to the city police narcotics squad, was at work yesterday morning at the city's Investigations Branch in East Liberty when he heard a broadcast on his police radio. Wilkinsburg police were investigating the shootings of five people and were seeking assistance from neighboring police departments.
Fisher said he and city Sgt. Michael Kroner piled into a car and drove to the scene on Penn Avenue, just over the city's border with Wilkinsburg. There, they found a confusing scene, with officers from the Wilkinsburg, city, county and suburban police departments closing off streets around the Penn West Building while they tried to determine where Taylor was hiding.
Fisher, a veteran of the city's SWAT team, notified supervisors that he was there. A short time later, they summoned him to the first floor of the building and asked him to take over negotiations with Taylor.
Fisher said he was led to an office on the building's first floor, where the Allegheny County Police SWAT team was poised to rush Taylor if necessary. At the other end of the hall, Taylor crouched on the floor, holding his .22-caliber revolver in his right hand.
"He would take the gun and put it to his head. Then he would put it in his mouth, or point it in our direction," Fisher said. "I put my head out of the office a little bit, but I wasn't going out there yet because I knew he had a gun. All I knew was his last name, so I called out to him and told him we didn't want to hurt him and would help him if we could."
Taylor responded by telling Fisher that he was going to kill himself, saying he didn't want his mother to be upset by what he'd done that day. Taylor admitted he'd shot at police officers before running into the building and said he thought it would be better to be dead than to spend the rest of his life in prison.
Taylor initially told Fisher, who is white, that he was afraid for his safety because he believed white police officers were not fair in their treatment of blacks.
"He said he had great mistrust and hatred for white police officers, that white police officers frame black people and put black people in jail," Fisher said. "I told him that was absolutely untrue and that I would do everything I could to help him."
Calmed by that assurance, Taylor told Fisher he'd been "set off" earlier yesterday morning by an encounter with his landlord and maintenance men in his apartment building with whom he'd clashed before.
"He said it had built up to the brink today, and he couldn't take it anymore," Fisher said. "He never said why he shot, but he did make an inquiry about the people he'd shot. I told him some were injured, but he didn't express any emotion."
As Fisher gradually engaged Taylor in conversation, Taylor said he'd never been in trouble with police before and was afraid to go to jail. Taylor also continued to insist that he'd let his mother down and that he wanted to die, Fisher said.
"I kept trying to get him off of the idea of killing himself and to start thinking about surrendering instead," Fisher said. "I kept trying to keep him focused on his mother, and to convince him that she'd want him to bring this to a peaceful conclusion."
While some of Taylor's relatives contacted police to offer to talk to Taylor, Fisher said he preferred to negotiate one on one with Taylor. Once a negotiator gets a person talking, it's best not to break that rapport by introducing someone else, Fisher said.
Taylor's mood swung wildly as he talked, sometimes agreeing that he should surrender and then once again insisting that suicide was his only option. More than once, Taylor put the gun in his mouth or against his temple and Fisher feared Taylor would go through with his threat.
But Fisher said he didn't believe in his heart that Taylor really wanted to end his life. He was heartened further to hear Taylor suddenly demand a cigarette and something to drink.
Taylor wouldn't sip from a bottle of water that police supplied from their commandeered office, saying he suspected the officers had put drugs in it to knock him out. So Fisher slid a pack of Marlboro menthols down the hall and sent another officer next door to a convenience store to fetch a freshly purchased bottle of chilled water for Taylor.
At about 2 p.m., Fisher asked Taylor once again to consider giving up his gun. Taylor hesitated, then said he would.
Fisher instructed Taylor to lay down his gun and any other weapons he had hidden in his jeans, T-shirt and jacket. Taylor unloaded his revolver, slid it down the hall to Fisher and then did the same with a knife he pulled from his clothing.
Fisher then told Taylor to walk halfway down the hall before turning around, dropping to his knees and lying prone on the floor.
"I explained to him that police officers would be coming down [to surround and handcuff him]," Fisher said. "But I promised him that I'd stand there and make sure no one would harm him."
Once the SWAT officers had subdued Taylor, Fisher walked down the hall and looked for the first time into the face of the man whose mind he'd sought to probe.
Taylor asked, "Are you John?" Fisher said he smiled and nodded, then watched other SWAT officers lead Taylor away.
Fisher said he's negotiated with about 10 people during his career, talking them down from bridges, out of buildings and away from hostages. His two-hour session with Taylor was the toughest he's ever done.
"It was mentally taxing because of the totality of the situation," Fisher said. "I knew he'd shot people already, so he [had] nothing to lose. I told him I'd be there as long as it took, just so he came out without hurting anyone.
"When I saw him unload that gun, you can be sure I was real relieved."
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