MIRAMAR, Fla. – Jaime Taylor and Anthony Souvenir were both fathers of 1-year-old children. They could have talked about what they had in common, but instead, their meeting, recorded on video, ended in tragedy in Broward County.
Surveillance video shows Taylor, 28, and Souvenir, 27, at Walgreens on Feb. 3, at 2499 SW 101 Ave., in Miramar. Over a month later, with his defense attorneys, Taylor described his fear and Souvenir’s anger.
Souvenir, whose mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year, walked away from his son and girlfriend, and toward Taylor, who was shopping alone in the pharmacy store, having a conversation on his phone.
“He thought I was looking at his girl,” Taylor said adding, “And then, he told me that I am ‘looking too hard!’”
Taylor, who had played football for Booker T. Washington High School and Northwest Missouri State, said he tried to avoid arguing with Souvenir, but they were both carrying guns, and both decided to fire.
“I shot when he pulled it out,” Taylor said.
Souvenir, who was born in Miami, died.
Taylor surrendered to Miramar police officers after running away during the shooting. Broward County Sheriff’s Office correctional deputies booked Taylor at the main jail in Fort Lauderdale. He faced a manslaughter charge.
In 2022, when Souvenir was 24, a police officer responding to a road rage incident in Hallandale Beach, and arrested him after he was allegedly reaching for a loaded gun in a backpack with drugs and an identification that didn’t belong to him, records show.
Court records show the case was still pending when he died. He had pleaded not guilty to charges of open carrying of a weapon, possession of marijuana with intent to sell, possession of amphetamine, and unauthorized possession of an ID. Souvenir was supposed to appear in Broward County court in June.
On Monday, Taylor was in tears. He covered his face in front of reporters. Attorneys Andrew Rier and Jonathan Jordan were with him to announce that Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, which justifies deadly force, prompted prosecutors to drop the manslaughter case against him.
“It was killed or be killed,” Taylor said adding that he was praying for Souvenir’s grieving family.
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