Ronald Evans Taylor was seeking a medical discharge from the Army when he was killed Friday night as he was driving near his home in Ogden, Kansas. He was stationed at Fort Riley, about eight miles away.
Taylor grew up in Wheatfield, Indiana, population 853. His family is making plans for his funeral while police in Kansas continue to investigate his murder.
"This was not just a man, this was our brother and our hero, our soldier," said sister Tiffany Graf. "He wasn't just a 28-year-old man, he was my 6-year-old brother when I was 5. He was my 15-year-old brother when I was 14. He was my brother. He was a father. He was a son. We need justice because he was a good man and should not have been treated this way."
The Army medic and father of one was shot to death Friday night, just a few blocks away from his off-base home in Ogden, Kansas.
After Taylor was shot, his car slammed into a house. When police arrived they found a citizen trying to give Taylor CPR. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Witnesses tell police they heard two shots before the crash, but no one was able to pinpoint the location of the shots. Police are trying to establish a motive.
Meanwhile, Taylor's brother and sister in Wheatfield are finalizing services for him and grieving a brother who served two tours in Iraq.
"Evans was a hero," said brother Alex Taylor. "And it's a tragedy to lose him here on U.S. soil. I think it would have been easier if it would have happened overseas. We could at least understand the circumstances, but the fact that it happened in Kansas, here in the U.S., is just completely wrong, not how my older brother should have gone."
Taylor's family was he was not into drugs or anything illegal. They are praying for a break in the case from hundreds of miles away.
The surviving sibling's say mother Taylor's mother Allison is a retired Army lieutenant colonel who still lives in Wheatfield. She had to travel to Kansas to collect her son's belongings.
Taylor was injured in his second tour of duty. He was seeking a medical discharging, hoping to live back in Wheatfield.
