The Roanoke Times

Suspect's family looks for a reason

Printed Sept. 25, 2000

By MIKE ALLEN
THE ROANOKE TIMES

Ronald Edward Gay's father hated it when his children got into trouble. When Ron was 12, he started hanging around with the wrong crowd. His father, Cecil, became so angry that he made his son strip naked and whipped him.

But William Gay, 51, Ronald's brother, said the incident was the only time he could remember his father acting out of anger. Cecil Gay was a loving father who was very protective of his family, but "he was very strict. He didn't like trouble."

Late Friday night a bearded man wearing a black trench coat went into Backstreet Cafe on Salem Avenue in Southwest Roanoke, ordered a beer, then stood up and fired at least eight shots from a 9 mm handgun. One man was killed and six others were wounded. Police have charged 53-year-old Ronald Edward Gay with first-degree murder in connection with the shootings.

"He admits to shooting people," said Lt. William Althoff, head of the criminal investigations unit of the Roanoke City Police Department.

Police videotaped Gay's confession and it will be submitted as evidence against him. He is to be arraigned today.

Gay's mother, Rita Hack, who lives in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, said that Gay's sister Marilyn spoke to Ronald Gay on Saturday night at the Roanoke City Jail. "He said, ‘I know, sis. I'm in trouble.’ ”

Lt. Chuck Ferguson of the Roanoke City Sheriff's Department said Gay has been calm, cooperative and quiet. "He's not on a suicide watch."

"I didn't think it was going to happen to this family," Hack said. "I'm just in a daze. I think I cried all day." She said her son had called her a few days ago. "He said, ‘I love you, Ma.’ ”

Roanoke police said Gay approached a Corned Beef & Co. employee just before the shooting, asked where a gay bar was, said he wanted to kill some gay people and showed the employee his gun. The employee directed the man toward The Park at 615 Salem Ave., then called police after the man left. Instead, the man went to the Backstreet Cafe, a bar frequented by gays, at 356 Salem Ave.

William Gay is baffled by his brother's actions. Reached at his home in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Gay's voice often wavered and faltered. "He phoned me about four days ago," he said. During the conversation, his brother told him he was making plans to come to Dartmouth to visit.

He said his brother didn't hold anything against gays, but sometimes complained that the family name had taken on a new meaning of homosexual. "When I went to school, gay just meant ‘happy,’ ” he said.

Gay said his brother had been unable to obtain the medicine he took for post-traumatic stress disorder from the Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center. "He is really frustrated with that hospital. He was reaching out. When they did not give him his medication . . . they were creating a time bomb."

Hack said that Ronald Gay had told his sister he was trying to get medication, but the VA hospital would not help him.

William Gay said the fact that his brother approached someone and said he was going to go to a gay bar and kill gays was a cry for help, as if he were saying, “ ‘I'm going to do this, can you do something to stop me?’ ”

A spokesperson for the Salem VA Medical Center could not confirm Sunday night whether Gay was a patient there.

As a child, he excelled in sports, loved baseball and bowling, and was meticulous about his appearance, his brother said.

When he was a teen-ager, Ronald Gay left Canada for the United States to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps. His father died while he was in training at Parris Island, S.C., William Gay said.

Ronald was teased often because of his last name while in the military, his brother said.

Ronald Gay served one tour of duty in the Vietnam War. His mother said he saw seven friends killed when their truck struck a land mine. His brother said Ronald cleaned up the bodies.

When he returned from the war, "that's when everything started to go downhill bad," his brother said.

Gay's fifth ex-wife, Laura Ramsey, said he had prescriptions for Prozac, an anti-depressant, and Clonipin, an anti-anxiety drug. She said he took his medication daily while they were married, but also drank constantly. She said he had a problem with alcohol.

After the Vietnam War, Ronald Gay spearheaded a land dispute his family was involved in.

In 1941, the Canadian defense department had taken 400 acres of the family's land for its use, William Gay said. Cecil Gay demanded the government pay his family for the value of the land. At the time of his death, the dispute had not been resolved.

The family finally reached a settlement with the government two years ago, William Gay said. The frustration of the long fight, coupled with his experiences in Vietnam, made Ronald bitter. "He still wasn't satisfied."

William Gay said his brother remains embittered by two losses: the U.S. loss in Vietnam and the long struggle to restore the land taken from his father, a man who hid his dispute with the government while his children were growing up.

"We didn't know it was a bad world out there," Gay said.

The Washington Post contributed to this story.