Here's some more news from Ft. Meyers

http://www.nbc-2.com/articles/readarticle.asp?articleid=16112&z=3&p=

Very interesting. And also not all that surprising since in a lot of burglary cases, the intruder has been to the home before.

I think a lot of people that have knowledge of this will be singing, once some of these pieces start coming together.

Although, I have a feeling the police have a lot of information that of course, they will not release to the media for a goodly while.

More news from Ft. Meyers

http://www.nbc-2.com/articles/readarticle.asp?articleid=16112&z=3&p=

Wow they are reporting that the shotter confessed, thats good news i didnt want a long drawn out investigation. would have been harder on the family and everyone on the team

This just truly makes me angry. All those that talked about Sean need to come forward. He died being a TRUE MAN. Protecting his woman and child.

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071130/NEWS01/71130024/1075

Photos of suspects.

This is a pretty good article bashing the way the press has covered this

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AjP2KV1wLW9agtUdAZlZjTpDubYF?slug=jc-taylorcoverage113007&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

SAK2 you should of heard JB on the Riggins show. He blast the press and Wilbon the way the have handled the story. Said that Sean wasn't involved in any type of thug stuff base on everyone he talked with. I think the story he did on Sean will air Sunday.

Another news outlet

http://www.winknews.com/news/local/11969961.html

I thought Eugene Washington (WaPo news columnist)had a good column today:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/29/AR2007112901875.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

also ESPN actually has a thoughtful piece on the homepage right now. I would love to read the thoughts of Howard Bryant.

WOW those suspects are young. Heartbreaking really if you start to let your mind wrap around it all.....

I have hated the way some of the major news reporters have covered this Im glad Im hearing and reading that all of the reporters out there dont agree with it.

i used to think that Wilbon was just a second rate journalist. I now think he is a first rate fool

Thanks for posting that Eugene Robinson article, cL. I love that dude. He writes about race on a To Kill A Mockingbird level. Many good points.

RIP 21

Hey CL, was just gonna link to Gene's article. It's a thing of beauty, as usual. I wish that guy would write for the Sports section permanently, but I guess that would be squandering some serious talent.

Been following the blog, but once Sean lost the battle just thought it was best to give you all some space up here. I hope the healing process has begun, and gets a nice boost on Sunday and Monday.

Growing up in Miami, not far from Sean's place, someone broke into my family's house and put a gun to my head. So this has really made me feel lucky to be alive. And it was not a black person and not anyone I knew. So like Warren Brown says, let us never assume that any one race or ethnicity has a monopoly on violence, disrespect, and stupidity.

It'll be interesting to see what Wilbon says in his next chat/article.

Smack, like Dan Snyder this week, you're nothing but class. My brother was a sophomore in college in Memphis when he heard a burglar working on his bedroom door, which he always locked before he went to bed. He hunts, so he was able to grab his shotgun and give it a loud pump to warn the burglar. That saved him from having to feel a gun to his head like you or worse. Glad to still have both of you around.

Folks, I am at my wits end. It amazes me how 99.9% of the nation has been simply misled by the media into thinking that Sean Taylor's death was his fault and caused by bad associations. This DESPITE the fact that the police have caught people and announced that they did it just as a robbery. And DESPITE the fact that the police have always said they saw no connection to Taylor personally.

Every message board I go to or conversation I engage in I hear the same thing: did you hear Rolle's comments? Did you hear that there was a knife on his pillow? They broke down the door to get to him? They're ALL saying that they dont believe it was "just" for money and that they were out to get Taylor.

I just watched PTI and Kornheiser and Wilbon expressed EXTREME skepticism at this turn of events. They more or less said, "We know who Sean Taylor was. We have a really hard time believing the cops are right here. Everything we've heard seems to indicate it was a "hit."

People are ridiculously off base here because of four things.

1) The knife on Sean Taylor's pillow --> sending a message!
2) Why would they break down his bedroom door to shoot him??
3) Why would the intruders not steal anything either time? Must have been a "hit"!
4) But Antrel Rolle said so!

Here's the thing: 1, 2, and 3 are NOT TRUE.

THERE WAS NO KNIFE ON THE BED AS A MESSAGE!
IT IS ALMOST CERTAINLY NOT THE CASE THAT NOTHING WAS TAKEN EITHER TIME!
THERE IS A VERY GOOD REASON WHY THEY STARTED BREAKING DOWN THE BEDROOM DOOR; THEY WANTED TO GET AT VALUABLES, NOT SEAN TAYLOR!

But the media has sensationalized this story from the very beginning. How have they done this? By failing to properly report on the most elemental piece of evidence involved: the initial police report. I will discuss #4 at the end.

I am going to explain simply and clearly how the media is COMPLETELY wrong and has been spreading false information from the very start. It requires very few assumptions or inferences and the entire argument is quite sound overall (especially when you consider that the people "on the ground" -- the police, the family, the lawyer, all say that Taylor was not targeted).

How can you guys help? Not sure. Maybe you can copy/paste this to other message boards. Send this to some blogs. Send it to writers at your local paper. Encourage them to point out how disgustingly flawed the reporting has been from the very start. All I know is that I was able to Google the initial police report and piece together just about exactly what happened from the very start to realize that Sean Taylor was just an innocent victim of people who were after his belongings. He was NOT a target. This was not a ridiculous mob movie type Hollywood vendetta.

So let's start. Here is the police report from the first break in at Sean Taylor's house:

http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2007/11/26/15/taylor_policereport.source.prod_affiliate.56.pdf

(If that link doesn't work for you, Google "sean taylor"" "police report" and click the third link. It is the last item in the blue box about halfway down the middle of the page)

Now that you have the police complaint from the first break in, note one very important thing: SEAN TAYLOR WAS NOT AVALIABLE TO TALK TO POLICE. HIS MOTHER FILED THIS REPORT.

The first rumor/innuendo spread by the media:

1) The knife on Sean Taylor's bed as a "message"

Look at the text of the report: "C-2 also advised that a kitchen knife was left on her bed."

Note that it says HER bed... c-2 is, I presume, Sean Taylor's mom (complainant 2?) who filed the report (again, he was not in town). All of the articles said "a knife was left on a bed." Isn't that ridiculously sensationalistic? Not only did they not specify, as the police report did, "kitchen knife" (meaning, likely, a butter knife), they did not even bother to say ""a knife was left on SEAN TAYLOR'S MOTHER'S BED." Don't you think that would instantly kill any inference that there was some sort of message being sent? Not only that, the very first day, Sean Taylor's lawyer and family friend, Richard Sharpstein, clarified that investigators thought the knife was left there by the intruders after they had used it to try to pry open things in one of the rooms in the house. Did the media clarify any of this? No. They just said "a knife was found on a bed" and I think some said "A knife was found on Sean Taylor's bed." God, it disgusts me.

The second rumor/innuendo spread by the media:

2) Why would they break down his bedroom door to shoot him??

2nd paragraph on pg. 2: "S-1 (suspect 1?) entered several rooms in the residence and went through several drawers and a safe in v-1's (victim 1's?) bedroom."

In other words: The burglars scoped out the place once and knew that the valuables were in the bedroom. Granted, it requires a couple of assumptions (i.e. that they only took some of the valuables the first time and came back for more - they didn't park their cars in the driveway and load everything in, after all, they just grabbed and took whatever they could hold onto their persons, most likely; or maybe they were unable to open some stuff in there the first time and came back with stronger tools) but it seems plausible that's why they went to the bedroom and tried to break down the door (because they thought it was locked to protect the valuables, not because they wanted to get at Sean Taylor specifically). Even though we need to make these modest assumptions, it seems clear that they were trying to break into the bedroom during the second break-in because they knew that the valuables were kept there: the safe and what might be in the drawers.

3) Why would the intruders not steal anything either time? Must have been a "hit"!

Page 2, 1st paragraph: "At this time, it's unknown what property was taken, v-1 (victim 1... Sean Taylor, I think it's safe to assume) was not on the scene."

Also, look at paragraph 3 on pg. 2: "A property loss form was also left on scene ..." Now, it's conceivable they leave a property loss form with everybody, even if they're certain nothing was stolen. But come on, there's a STRONG inference here that they left the form BECAUSE they had to list as "unknown" the contents stolen since "v-1 was not on the scene." It doesn't take a huge leap of logic or super duper investigative reporting to figure out that the reason it was unknown what was stolen was because Taylor was not there to specify. It seems unlikely his mother, who did not live at that house, would be able to tell them everything (or even anything) that may have been missing.

I mean, if a diligent reporter reads this carefully and takes it to a random police station and asks them to explain operating procedure, I'm sure they would have enough reason to say in an article, "although the police report said that it was unknown what, if anything, was stolen, police experts say the police report suggests that police were unable to determine the extent of the property taken because of Taylor's absence from the residence" or something.

So there you have it, all three ridiculously sensationalistic aspects of the Sean Taylor saga almost completely rebutted on the basis of a look at the most elemental thing: the initial police report. Combine that with asking a few police officers about operating procedures and you can lay out a very clear and factual account of what happened and all of America would not assume that Taylor was downed in an old gang fight or whatever.

As for Antrel Rolle. I don't even know where to begin on that. Basically, the media took the comments of a random person that knew Sean Taylor and made it about 50x more important than what EVERYBODY "on the ground" was saying: the police detectives, the girlfriend, the father, the friends, the family, the lawyer... all of them said that everything indicated that it was a case of burglars trying to steal from Sean Taylor, not old, scary acquaintances looking to take him out gangland style.

But the media was too eager to run with the Rolle story. They took his completely unfounded and completely speculative comments, based it in fact because it was "his childhood friend," connected that with what they thought they knew about who Sean Taylor was (e.g. he was a thug from "tha U" - don't even get me started there, that's an entirely separate, 10x longer post that I will undertake some other time) and presumed that that, plus THE KNIFE, plus THE BEDROOM, plus NOTHING BEING STOLEN (all three clearly refuted above) meant that Antrel Rolle corroborated what everyone thought: this was a "hit."

Wrong. This was a bunch of hoodlums who wanted to steal stuff, stuff they had seen in the safe and the drawers in Sean Taylor's bedroom the first time they broke into his home. Sean Taylor locked the door. When they tried to break down his bedroom door, he went at them with the only thing he had with him, a machete. Thereupon, they fled, shooting wildly at him twice while fleeing, one shot missing, one shot mortally wounding him in his upper thigh/leg area (how many assassins shoot someone in the leg?).

That is what happened to Sean Taylor. It is clear as day. The police investigators have come to that conclusion. Everybody "on the ground" has come to that conclusion. There is NOTHING to suggest otherwise -- all three other stories (the knife, the bedroom, nothing being stolen) are, as established above, FALSE.

This is a case where the media has ineptly and sensationalistically reported a story that is ridiculously simple and elemental. A close look at the very first police report would instantly eradicate the rumor and innuendo that surrounds this whole episode. Since they're failing to do so, I am making a hail mary effort to get this out there.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and please spread it along.

Just saw miami police news conference announcing 4 arrests; police confident that they have the gunman in custody.

Unfortunately, I don't have a link to post

Adam

It'll be interesting to see what Wilbon says in his next chat/article.

Posted by: Poopy_McPoop | November 30, 2007 08:40 PM

Poopy, my guess is he'll say something about Obama looking over his shoulder for guys he used to hand out campaign flyers with in the hood with the Campus Democrats.

Quick link, very limited

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3135855

Adam

Broohaha, I get what you're saying--but you seem like you'd be the first to admit that we're all just speculating until

-the end of the investigation
-details of the reported confessions
-evidence supporting or impeaching the confessions
-judgment day when the souls of those worthless 'bags are weighed and pushed in one direction or the other

May Jackie and her beautiful daughter (saw the photo someone here posted) find some way to forgive and press on

hey, guys. just got back from dinner and heard the miami presser. the photos of those kids are indeed heart-breaking...the police chief credited the tips line with providing important informtion. it'll be interesting to learn what that was....

I'm sorry Sean, I should not have assumed the worst. I just got so caught up in being upset at the senselessness of the whole thing and upset that guns and gang violence take too many lives. This is such a trajedy, I just can't believe the turn of events. The fact that they were probably there to just rob the place, the fact that Sean was even home that weekend, the fact that a probable defensive move in shooting Sean low and in the legs ended up in his death and not just an injury. I just can't seem to shake this. I want to see him play, I want to see him elevate himself to the status we all know he was capable of, I want to see him and Landry become the best safety tandem in the league, I want to see him smack Romo upside the head.

I'm so sorry that any of this happened, and I'm sorry that he is being thought of as a thug, and I'm sorry I was a part of that. This sucks!

Scott, I wish more people would come and pour it out like that (for instance, Colin Coward). I don't think a mea culpa's ever been better spoken than yours, and for crying out loud, we've all had a rough time this week. Don't beat yourself up, we're all heartbroken over what could have been. What we can all agree on is Sean did what we all hope we would do in that circumstance--he stepped up and took on a gunman with an oversized knife to protect his fiancee and baby. There couldn't be a more honorable way to go out than that. I hope I can have those kinds of plutonium pecans when it comes down to dust.

Where are our regulars? It used to be people like Nate, kost, even periculum were the heart of a vibrant group. Where is everybody? Now's when we need y'all!

Apologies to cL who posted earlier...

And apologies to jm220, too, who's really carried the group since Monday

And to 4th/RightWay. Guess I'm just wishing some others were out there tonight. Hearing about the confessions is actually making me feel worse than before somehow...what a needless way to go...

I agree Nick, it's almost like I would feel better if Sean was connected to this. It just makes it seem so improbable to have it be a "random" robbery.

Hey, NickSC, I can't speak for everybody among the 'regulars' but it's been awfully hard for me to come up with comments that I felt were worth posting. I'm much more comfortable when the mood is light than times like this.

And the folks who have been posting comments this week have been doing such an amazing job giving voice to their feelings that there is not much I can add.

It's also been hard just keeping up with Jason, who has turned his blog coverage of this tragedy into what I think will be a watershed moment for his budding career. New threads all the time... a new one already! Keeping the story -- and us as his readers -- moving ahead all the time. Amazing stuff, and absolutely what I needed, following this awful story from afar.

Hail.