Redskins' Sean Taylor shot in S. Dade
By ERIKA BERAS, SUSAN MILLER DEGNAN AND OSCAR CORRAL
ocorral@MiamiHerald.com
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 to investigate. 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 wound, 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 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, the door swung open and someone fired two shots at him. One shot hit his groin, the other missed him. Taylor's girlfriend found him breathing heavily.
''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.
Sharpstein said someone tried to break into Taylor's house last weekend.
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.''
In a 2005 incident, Taylor was arrested when he waved a gun a a man who had stolen is 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
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