John Kroll, a 55-year-old white male, had just completed a maintenance task at a Wilkinsburg apartment building on a Wednesday in March of 2000. He was a carpenter and handyman who, according to a coworker, was not one to look for arguments. On this particular day, his job was to repair a door at the apartment of Ronald Taylor. After finishing the work, Kroll was shot in the chest and killed.
The events that led to Kroll's death began when Ronald Taylor, a 39-year-old black male, became upset about the repair issues in his apartment. After Kroll and another maintenance worker, Mike DeWitt, addressed the problem, Taylor reportedly followed them. While DeWitt left the immediate area, Taylor allegedly shot Kroll. Following the shooting, Taylor set his own apartment on fire. This act triggered the fire alarms, alerting others in the building to a problem.
After shooting John Kroll, Taylor's violence was not contained to the apartment building. He proceeded to a nearby Burger King where he shot and killed a 71-year-old man. From there, he went to a McDonald's and shot three more people, one of whom, a 20-year-old man, later died from his injuries. The two other victims at the McDonald's were critically wounded. Following the shootings at the fast-food restaurants, Taylor fled to a nearby office building, leading to a hostage standoff before he eventually surrendered to police.
Ronald Taylor was arrested and initially charged with two counts of criminal homicide. Additional charges were later filed, including five counts of aggravated assault, a firearms charge, causing a catastrophe, and arson. A hate crime charge, legally known as ethnic intimidation in Pennsylvania, was also added. Court documents indicated that Taylor expressed malicious intent 'toward white males,' and a witness reported that he had referred to the maintenance workers as 'white trash and racist pigs.' In 2001, Ronald Taylor was sentenced to death for his crimes and remains on death row.
