The investigation involving the shooting of an Emporia State football player the morning of Saturday, March 24 continues.
Joshua R. Taylor, 21, was shot once in the back of the shoulder. He was taken to Newman Regional Health and later airlifted to a Wichita hospital. He has since been released.
Taylor is a safety for ESU’s football team. Jordan Sanders, 22-year-old linebacker, and Vincent Davis Jr., 24-year-old wide receiver, were also in the vehicle along with Gary Fortune, 20, a mid-season transfer, and Broderick Turner, 24. Turner is not a part of the team.
According to the police report issued by the Emporia Police Department, all five are considered victims at this point in the investigation since any one of them could have been harmed as they were leaving the clubhouse, 2637 Wiltshire Lane.
The altercation took place at approximately 3:00 a.m. in front of the clubhouse, according to the police department’s press release.
The initial call included an injury accident, but upon arriving at the scene, one individual had had their foot run over and refused treatment.
Police Chief Gary Smith said that there had been an argument inside the building, but the shooting occurred after the group was outside the building.
The caliber of the gun has not yet been made public.
Smith said that a bloodied knife was found at the scene, but no one with a knife wound was found. The knife has been sent to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to determine if the blood is human or animal.
No knife wound victims have been reported to the police yet.
After officers had been dispatched to the scene, a disturbance call was received from Newman Regional Hospital involving one person with a gunshot wound who had arrived in a private vehicle. The individuals were identified as being previously at Wiltshire Lane.
Smith said that alcohol was suspected in the crime, but nothing they had yet found linked the incident with drugs. He also said that currently in the investigation, the violence was neither racially nor gang motivated.
“Our primary concern is whatever initiated the confrontation outdoors,” Smith said. “In my mind, if you’re looking at the timeline, that’s sort of the big mark in the line; that’s where, really, our investigation starts.”
Smith said that they are having difficulty in finding witnesses, and that he had been misquoted previously, saying that this “was not an isolated incident.” But what was actually said was that this incident was isolated and that there was no cause for worry of a gunman on the loose in the town.
Anyone with information regarding this incident may call the Emporia Police Department at 343-4200, or Crime Stoppers at 342-2273.

Charlie Heptas