Redskins' Sean Taylor dies day after shooting

On Monday night, doctors .expressed optimism after Redskins safety Sean Taylor showed responsiveness in the wake of a shooting early that morning. He squeezed a nurse's hand and showed facial expressions.

But by early Tuesday, hope was gone. Taylor, 24, died at about 3:30 a.m. of gunshot wounds suffered during an apparent burglary at his home in the Miami suburb of Palmetto Bay.

"This is the worst imaginable tragedy," Redskins owner Daniel Snyder said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Sean's family."

Taylor died at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he had been airlifted after the shooting.

"His father called and said he was with Christ and cried and thanked me," said Richard Sharpstein, Taylor's lawyer. "It's a tremendously sad and unnecessary event. He was a wonderful, humble, talented young man, and had a huge life in front of him."

Taylor's death stunned several Giants and Jets who knew him.

"Sean has been a close friend of mine since our days at the University of Miami," Jets linebacker Jonathan Vilma said. "He was a great teammate and an even greater person. It is so hard for me to fathom that I am not going to be able to pick up the phone to call him."

Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey was a senior at Miami when Taylor was a freshman. "He was kind of a wild child, like myself, but life changed for Sean after he had his baby girl. Fatherhood really changed him," said Shockey, who worked out in the offseason with Taylor, who was one of the NFL's best safeties.

Giants receiver Sinorice Moss said, "Sean was really like a brother to me. We were classmates and teammates at UM and he just loved football and being around his friends."

Several mourners visited Taylor's home and embraced outside it. Among them was Taylor's father, Florida City police chief Pedro Taylor. Law enforcement authorities entered the home to gather evidence in what they labeled a homicide.

Taylor was shot in the upper leg and groin and suffered damage to the femoral artery, losing a great deal of blood.

"According to a preliminary investigation, it appears that the victim was shot inside the home by an intruder," Miami-Dade County police said in a statement. "We do not have a subject description at this time."

The attack came eight days after an intruder was reported at Taylor's home.

Officers were sent to the home about 1:45 a.m. Monday after Taylor's girlfriend, Jackie Garcia, called 911. According to Sharpstein, Garcia said they were awakened by loud noises, and that Taylor told her to get under the covers while he shut the bedroom door and grabbed a machete he kept for protection under his bed. As she cuddled their 18-month-old child, Garcia told Sharpstein she did not hear voices but said "she heard a lot of noise that she related to more than one person."

Then, she told him, the door swung open and Taylor was shot by a gunman who never stepped into the room. One bullet hit Taylor; the other hit a wall. Taylor fell back into the bedroom, Sharpstein said. Neither Garcia nor the child, also named Jackie, was hurt.

The gunman fled immediately after firing. "Nothing was stolen," Sharpstein said.

Police found signs of forced entry but have not determined if they were caused Monday or during the previous burglary. In last week's break-in, police said someone pried open a front window, rifled through drawers and left a kitchen knife on a bed. "They're sifting through that incident and today's incident to see if there's any correlation," Miami-Dade Detective Mario Rachid said.

Taylor, drafted No. 5 overall by the Redskins in 2004, had a rocky start in the NFL. He had a drunken driving charge that was dismissed. He was fined at least seven times for late hits and other on-field infractions, including spitting in an opponent's face.

In 2005, he was accused of pointing a gun during a fight over all-terrain vehicles near his home. A year later, he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors and was sentenced to probation.

Redskins teammate Clinton Portis, who visited Taylor in the hospital, said he had sensed a newfound maturity in him.

"It's hard to expect a man to grow up overnight," said Portis, also a college teammate of Taylor. "But ever since he had his child, it was like a new Sean, always smiling, always happy, always talking about his child."

"The entire NFL is deeply saddened by the death of Sean Taylor," commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. " ... We will honor his memory at all games this weekend."

The Associated Press and the Miami Herald contributed to this report.

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