Sean Taylor 'Clinging to Life'-NFL player shot last night

http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2007/11/26/sean-taylor-clinging-to-life/

Posted Nov 26th 2007 4:25PM by Bruce Ciskie
Filed under: Redskins, NFC East, Washington, DC

The latest news on Redskins safety Sean Taylor is not good.

Taylor was shot early Monday morning during an apparent break-in at his home in Miami. The early word was that Taylor was in critical condition and undergoing surgery. At one point, Jason La Canfora, who blogs about the Redskins on the Washington Post website, said he had spoken to a family friend who was at the hospital, and he said they "believe the situation is stabilizing".

Unfortunately, this doesn't appear to be the case. The latest from La Canfora (via Pro Football Talk) is that Taylor is "clinging to life".

Richard Sharpstein, who has represented Sean Taylor in legal matters in the past and is a friend of the family, said moments ago that the player's life is hanging in the balance in the hospital. Sharpstein, speaking from the hospital, said Taylor is "nonresponsive and unconscious" and the doctors are "worried about a possible brain injury or death."

Sharpstein, who has been with Taylor's family at the hospital much of the day, said that there are major worries that Taylor may have lost oxygen to the brain, and that no other procedures are planned for right now. "They're waiting to see if he comes to," Sharpstein said. He was shot in the groin/thigh area near the femoral artery and lost copious amounts of blood. The intruders then retreated and Sean was airlifted to the trauma center and endured several hours of surgery, Sharpstein said.
Taylor is only 24 years old, with a girlfriend and a young child (who were unhurt in the shooting). While the latest update in the Miami Herald makes no direct reference to the perpetrators being either in custody or still at-large, it does say they fled after Taylor was shot. The latest Herald story also makes reference to the possibility that Taylor has suffered brain damage due to his heavy blood loss.

Amy Shipley of the Washington Post appeared on ESPNEWS. She told Josh Elliott "Several family members have told us he (Taylor) is doing okay". She didn't really elaborate on that statement, only to say that the family was trying to "piece together" what happened at Taylor's residence.

Just really sad. I hope he recovers.

is that necessary?

In June 2005, Taylor was arrested and charged with felony assault and battery after the authorities said he pointed a gun at three men outside a house in West Perrine and accused them of stealing two all-terrain vehicles from him.

Witnesses told the police that Taylor, accompanied by several people, assaulted one of the men and made death threats before driving off. Minutes later, a group of men drove by Taylor’s parked S.U.V. and sprayed it with bullets from an AK-47 and a pistol. Taylor’s vehicle was empty at the time, and the gunmen were never identified or arrested.

Prosecutors negotiated a plea deal with Taylor and agreed to drop the felony charges. He was sentenced to 18 months of probation and pledged to donate time and money to various charities and schools in southern Florida.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/11/20/DI2007112000544.html

Michael Wilbon: No ... people's opinions are shaped by the way they've grown up, the way they see the world, what they know about the world the person in question grew up in, etc. Sean Taylor isn't the only guy I know who fits his general profile. I've known guys like Taylor all my life, grew up with some. They still have shades of gray and shouldn't be painted in black and white...I know how I feel about Taylor, and this latest news isn't surprising in the least, not to me. Whether this incident is or isn't random, Taylor grew up in a violent world, embraced it, claimed it, loved to run in it and refused to divorce himself from it. He ain't the first and won't be the last. We have no idea what happened, or if what we know now will be revised later. It's sad, yes, but hardly surprising.

And I suppose if somebody broke into the house of a white celebrity with a criminal history and murdered them, you'd be just as likely to blame the victim.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/11/20/DI2007112000544.html


Michael Wilbon: No ... people's opinions are shaped by the way they've grown up, the way they see the world, what they know about the world the person in question grew up in, etc. Sean Taylor isn't the only guy I know who fits his general profile. I've known guys like Taylor all my life, grew up with some. They still have shades of gray and shouldn't be painted in black and white...I know how I feel about Taylor, and this latest news isn't surprising in the least, not to me. Whether this incident is or isn't random, Taylor grew up in a violent world, embraced it, claimed it, loved to run in it and refused to divorce himself from it. He ain't the first and won't be the last. We have no idea what happened, or if what we know now will be revised later. It's sad, yes, but hardly surprising.

:sarcasm:

He had some problems early in his career, but since the birth of his daughter Sean has been a model citizen according to Joe Gibbs and his Redskin teammates.

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this via a Miami Dade police detective who had NOT been on the scene-just from what he knew.

Riggins asked the det if he could confirm reports that Taylor had a machete in his hand when he either answered the door (last night) or once he realized someone was trying to break in (this is speculation on my part) the det. said he did not know couldn't confirm anything.

:puke:

Except we know what you are really referring to, don't we?

No one deserves to be attacked, shot and left for dead in their own home.

:eyes:

I hope so

Why don't we talk about them? Why are they not "news"? Why don't we care about them?

Condolences to his family. That poor baby girl of his.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/don_banks/11/27/taylor/