from
the Miami Herald
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A week before Washington Redskins player Sean Taylor was shot in his Palmetto Bay house, a burglar broke in, rifled through his things, and left a knife on a bed inside hishouse, according to police records.
Eight days later, noises in the dark spooked Taylor and his girlfriend. It turned out to be their worst nightmare.
At least one armed intruder had broken into the $900,000 Palmetto Bay house of the star NFL player and were at his bedroom door. Taylor rose from bed, grabbed a machete, and went to investigate, according to a police source. Just outside his bedroom, he was shot in the groin and critically wounded. He collapsed back into the room, where he breathed heavily as blood gushed from his injury, according to Taylor's lawyer and family friend, Richard Sharpstein.
Taylor, a former University of Miami star and Gulliver Preparatory School graduate with a controversial past, was airlifted to the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital. About 20 family members and friends gathered at Ryder Trauma on Monday morning. They cried, made phone calls, talked among themselves and declined to speak with reporters.
Sharpstein said Taylor, 24, emerged from surgery about 12:30 p.m. but had lost a lot of blood and remained unconscious, his brain at risk of injury from the blood loss. He is in intensive care and doctors have allowed his family to see him.
According to police, Miami-Dade patrol officers received a call about 1:45 a.m. Monday that Taylor had been shot in the leg. The caller told police they heard intruders at the rear door of the house, trying to pry it open.
Taylor went to investigate; his girlfriend then heard a shot. Paramedics responded and found Taylor with a gunshot wound to the groin. Detective Juan Villalba, a Miami-Dade police spokesman, said police were interviewing relatives who were potential witnesses.
Sharpstein, who represented Taylor in a previous criminal case, said Taylor and his girlfriend were in their bedroom and heard noises in the house. The couple's baby was also in the house. As Taylor walked to the bedroom door to check out the noise, he picked up a machete, and then opened the bedroom door. Someone fired two shots at him, hitting him once in the groin. The other shot missed him. Taylor's girlfriend immediately went to help and found him breathing heavily. The shooter fled immediately after firing.
''Nothing was stolen. They shot at him and fled,'' said Sharpstein, who was visiting family at the hospital. ``He is clearly the victim of assault in his own home.''
According to police records, someone also broke into Taylor's house between 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 17 and midnight Sunday Nov. 18, by prying open a front window. No one was home at the time. The burglar entered several rooms in the house, rifled through drawers, and a safe in Taylor's bedroom. The police report says it was ''unknown'' whether anything was taken.
In that incident, someone left a kitchen knife on a bed in Taylor's house, according to the police report. Damage was also ``observed to the A/C vent in Taylor's bathroom.''
Retirees Pat and Jim Smith live in the house next to Taylor's. They said they heard voices outside about 2:30 a.m. and went outside to check it out. Jim Smith talked to a woman with a baby in her arms who he believes is Taylor's nanny. She said someone tried to break into Taylor's house last weekend and again earlier this weekend.
''I am going to make sure my gun is loaded,'' Jim Smith said. ``We never did have any problems here.''
The shooting happened at Taylor's home on Old Cutler Road in Palmetto Bay in South Miami-Dade, a four-bedroom, four-bath house he bought in 2005, according to the county's property appraiser's website. The one-story, pale yellow house is protected by a white wall with black gates, and a buzzer controls access. A car beneath a car cover and a boat could be seen on the grounds Monday.
Lt. Nancy Perez, a spokeswoman with the Miami-Dade Police Department, said police have been unable to talk to Taylor. They have no further information.
Taylor's family has asked that no information about his condition be released at this point, said Lorraine Nelson, a hospital spokeswoman.
Taylor is in his fourth season with the Redskins. He suffered a sprained right knee on Nov. 11 against the Philadelphia Eagles, an injury that had sidelined him indefinitely. The Redskins played the Buccaneers in Tampa Sunday.
In 2004 he was the fifth pick overall by the Redskins as one of their starting safeties after a stellar career at the University of Miami. He signed a seven-year, $18 million contract. His junior year at UM he led the Big East conference and was second in the nation in interceptions with nine.
He was an All-American, Thorpe Award finalist and Big East Defensive Player of the Year during his UM career.
Taylor is no stranger to controversy.
He was arrested in June 2005 for waving a gun at a group of people he believed had stolen his all terrain vehicle. Felony charges were dropped, but he eventually pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault and battery. Sharpstein said Taylor was actually the victim and that charges should never have been filed against him.
After the plea, Ryan Lee Hill, one of the men in front of whom Taylor allegedly waved a gun, sued Taylor, claiming Taylor hit him repeatedly in a fight and brandished a gun at him. Because of injuries he supposedly received during the fight, including bruises to his body, Hill lost wages and incurred medical expenses.
In the lawsuit, which according to court files is still active, Hill claims Taylor and some friends went looking for people who allegedly stole his all terrain vehicles. According to the suit, Taylor pummeled Hill with his fists and called him a thief. Taylor then left and returned with more friends and pointed an assault rifle at Hill.
''Total garbage and untrue,'' Sharpstein said of Hill's account in an interview Monday.
Taylor's father, Pedro Taylor, the police chief of Florida City, could not be reached for comment. But a woman who answered the phone in his office said he was at the hospital awaiting the result of his son's surgery.
''There were a number of people who were jealous of Sean's success,'' Sharpstein said.
Before he was drafted, he was rebuked by the NFL for leaving the league's mandatory rookie symposium early, and drew a $25,000 fine.
Taylor, 24, has made a living jarring receivers in the secondary for the Redskins and his jersey remains as popular as ever with Hurricanes fans. But lately, he had gotten into a bit of trouble for waving a gun at people he thought had stolen his car in 2005. I know folks automatically assume that means Taylor was a gangster or some guy that was hanging with the wrong crowd.
Taylor's cousin, Florida State safety Anthony Leon, said Taylor was trying to shed some trouble-making friends he grew up with in Florida City. Leon, who said he spent his morning crying and praying from his dorm room in Tallahassee, said Taylor had ``started to calm down.''
''He's been trying to stay away from bad company -- especially for his daughter's sake,'' Leon said. ``Sean wasn't a bad guy at all. He's got his personality on the football field and off it. All he was trying to do was protect his family. And they shot him.''
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