A day after his uncle Emmanuel Taylor was shot, Rashad Taylor says he's still at a loss for words.
"It's stupidity, are you really about to throw your life away for a bottle,” Taylor asked. “It's not something you would wish on anyone.”
Miami-Dade Police say a man went inside Jensen's Liquors on North Miami Avenue and Northwest 79th Street Thursday night trying to get a refund.
Police say when the clerk denied that refund, the man grabbed a bottle of liquor from the counter and tried to walk out.
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Surveillance video from inside the store shows one person trying to stop him, then an employee comes from the back. The employee is Taylor's uncle.
There's a brief struggle when Taylor grabs the man, who drops the bottle and appears to pull out a gun. Taylor confronts the man again but gets punched in the face. Taylor followed the man outside.
Police say that's when the man falls and shoots Taylor in the abdomen, which is captured on a surveillance camera.
After he gets shot, Taylor continues fighting with the man but then he stops, lifts his shirt, and realizes he was just shot.
The video shows Taylor walking away while the man who shot him takes off on a bicycle with a bottle of liquor.
"You expect to lose family members at a certain point because of old age or something like that but to hear that one of your family members may have been shot for what amounts to a $20 bottle of liquor, it's not supposed to happen that way,” Taylor said.
LIQUOR STORE SHOOTING
Taylor went to visit his uncle in the hospital on Friday. He says it's been a struggle.
"You can see the tears welling up, so we're just happy and fortunate that he's here,” Taylor said.
There are many adjectives Taylor can use to describe his uncle, but one thing he wants people to know is that his uncle loves this community.
"He doesn't have to work, but he goes there because he enjoys the customers, he enjoys the employees, he loves his family,” Taylor said.
Now his family sits by his side as he recovers, and hopes for justice.
"To resort to trying to take someone's life for what amounts to 5 to 10 minutes of what I can only call being inconvenienced maybe, I have no words,” Taylor said.
Anyone with any information on this incident is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
