Sad Day for the NFL [J. Mark English]

Sean Taylor of the Washington Redskins is dead. This is from the NY Times, by Kirk Semple:

Sean Taylor, a Pro Bowl safety with the Washington Redskins who was shot early Monday by an intruder at his home in an affluent suburb south of Miami, died early today from his injuries, one of his lawyers said. The lawyer, Richard Sharpstein, who has represented the 24-year-old Taylor, said in an interview by telephone that he received the news this morning from Taylor’s father.

“His father called me at 5:15 a.m. this morning and said Sean was with God,” Sharpstein said. “He was crying and overwrought with grief.” Sharpstein said he did not know exactly what time Taylor died.

The shooting Monday was reported to the police at 1:46 a.m. by Taylor’s girlfriend, who was in the house with Taylor in Palmetto Bay, an affluent suburb south of Miami. Taylor, bleeding profusely, was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital where he had surgery but remained in a critical condition throughout Monday.

He was unconscious for most of the day and although at one point he showed some signs of responding to a request to squeeze an attendant’s hand he never fully recovered. “Everybody was sort of brightened by the response but he never showed any kind of real response,” Sharpstein said.

“It’s just a sad senseless useless tragedy, an example of the incessant violence in this town and every other town in America,” Sharpstein said.