Hezo Kittie

Redskins free safety Sean Taylor was murdered in his home two weeks ago during an attempted robbery. After investigations, the police have found that it was probably a professional robbery, and the robbers didn't know that Taylor would be home. Taylor kept a machete in his bedroom for protection, and was probably shot while trying to defend himself. It was apparently in cold blood. He was wounded in the upper leg and died from severe blood loss.

The following excerpt was taken from sportswriter Peter King's weekly column for Sports Illustrated a few days after the events:

Chris Helein, the Redskins' vice president of public relations, sat on a couch in the front of the team's facility in Ashburn, Va., one Saturday last year with his 5-year-old son, Cameron, watching the players leave for the day. One by one they left, including Taylor, nodding to the Heleins or saying hey, then heading to their cars.

Taylor nodded, left the building, and was nearly all the way to his car when he turned back to head into the building. Must have forgotten something, Helein thought. Taylor headed over to Helein and his son, and said to the boy: "What's your name?''

"Cameron,'' he said.

"How old are you?''

"Five,'' Cameron said.

"How you doing?''

"Good,'' Cameron said.

"Well, take care of yourself, Cameron. Nice meeting you.''

And he was gone.

"This summer, I was in a mall buying my wife a birthday gift,'' said Helein. "And I saw Sean. He didn't see me, but I saw him, in the play area at the mall with his daughter, Jackie. They were just playing. He was having a great time; you could just tell. And no one was bothering him. I didn't say anything, because I didn't want to disturb him. It was just a nice moment, Sean playing with his daughter. That's what I'll remember.''