Sean Taylor's Tragic Death Too Young

After being shot and wounded in his Miami home, Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor has died. The 24-year-old football player was shot Monday during a home invasion and died later at a hospital.

According to Taylor's former attorney Richard Sharpstein, "The blood loss was too much. He didn't make it." "He never regained consciousness after the shooting, Sharpstein told CNN."It's a senseless, tragic death that was so unnecessary, another example of the incessant violence in – not only our community – but the country now."

Almost without exception, every major city in America is seeing record numbers of young people – mostly African American males – die as a result of gun violence.

Black men are America's primary crime victims. Black men over 18 are only 4 percent of this country's population, yet more are hospitalized for assault injuries each year than women and girls of all races combined. More black men died from homicide in 2004 alone than all the children aged 10 and under in the previous five years.Today, even after years of mostly falling crime rates, black men still die from homicide at extraordinary rates. Black death rates from homicide in 2002 were almost six times that of whites. Black men 15 to 24 years old are most vulnerable – some 85 per 100,000 died in 2004 from homicide, compared to a national average of six per 100,000.

The contribution of social factors to the health problems of African American men deserves further attention than thus far received. When an African American celebrity, such as Sean Taylor, dies in such a tragic death, most people look at the situation as a rare occurrence. However, the reality is that this happens everyday in the Black community. African American violence is one of the top 10 killers of African Americans and is and has been a public health epidemic.

More on Sean Tayolor
Young, Black and No Longer With Us
The glaring haunting details about Sean Taylor's death are the violent way he died and his young age: getting gunned down at the age of 24. An occurrence that is way too common in the black community. When is it going to stop?

See No. 21's Greatest Hits
When you hear coaches and teammates talk about Sean Taylor, you get the sense that he was on the cusp of becoming a phenomenal well-rounded safety. The proof is in the video clips.

Making Sense of Taylor's Death
It's hard to understand why someone so talented and so young isn't here with us anymore.