A GOOD-HEARTED, fun-loving man who followed the wrong crowd.
This is how the family of slain Sheldon Obrian Taylor, 28, of Lodge Road, Christ Church, described the young man who lost his life when he was shot on Wednesday around 9:30 p.m. while riding aboard a ZR plying the Silver Hill route.
“Sheldon wasn’t troublesome but he got into trouble. He had his issues like anybody else, but beyond that he would give you whatever he had if you needed it,” said cousin Kimberly Herbert.
Grandmother Eudalene Best told the WEEKEND NATION yesterday she raised Taylor and owns the land on which he, his aunts and cousins live. She said Taylor’s death shocked the close-knit family community.
“I got a call from a nurse at the hospital around 12 a.m. She told me “Miss Best, I got news for you, but I want you to brace yourself first”.Then she told me the doctor had to break the news.
“I said I was all right. Then I spoke to the doctor . . . . He asked me if I knew he [Taylor] was shot. I said no. Then he asked me to come to the hospital because he [Taylor] didn’t look too good,” she said.
Best said she decided to wait until later to take action as she was not about to unduly upset the family at that hour.
When she did, they took it hard. Taylor’s aunt June Fenty said: “I heard a knock on the door this [yesterday] morning, and my mum told me Sheldon got shot and they want someone to come to the hospital. I fell down at the door crying, then called my daughter and we went to the hospital.”
Cousin Herbert said she was dreaming a man was shot and was calling out when her mother woke her with the bad news.
“I couldn’t believe it. I cried and vomited and started to catch an asthma attack. Not seeing him is hard; not being able to joke with him is hard. I will miss him a lot,” she said.
During the interview, neither Fenty nor Herbert could hold back the tears.
Taylor suffered from sickle cell anaemia and as a result was rarely able to work. He was unemployed when he met his death.
In addition to his grandmother, aunts and cousins, Taylor leaves behind his two-year-old son Samari Thompson.
