MIAMI, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- Miami area police are investigating the shooting death of Washington Redskins defensive back Sean Taylor as a homicide and looking at an earlier burglary.
Taylor, 24, died early Tuesday in a Miami hospital, a day after being shot in the upper leg during a break-in at his home.
Miami-Dade police were called at 1:45 a.m. Monday to Taylor's home in Palmetto Bay, The Miami Herald reported. His girlfriend and baby daughter were in the same bedroom with him when the shooting occurred but weren't injured, the report said. Nothing was stolen.
But Miami-Dade police said Taylor's home also had been broken into eight days earlier, CNN reported. In that break-in, an unknown person forced open a window and left a kitchen knife on a bed, the police report said. Several drawers and a bedroom safe also had been searched during the break-in, CNN said.
It is not known whether the first burglary was related to Monday's attack, Taylor's lawyer, Richard Sharpstein, said.
In 2005, Taylor was arrested after he was accused of waving a gun at people he believed were stealing his all-terrain vehicles, his lawyer said. After being charged with aggravated assault, Taylor pleaded to a misdemeanor battery, CNN reported. A civil suit involving that incident is open.
Taylor was chosen by the Redskins as the fifth pick overall in the National Football League's 2004 draft and signed a seven-year, $18 million contract after his junior year at the University of Miami.
Most recently, he was sidelined indefinitely Nov. 11 when he sprained his right knee against the Philadelphia Eagles.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league would "honor the memory of Sean Taylor at all games this weekend."
