MIAMI, Nov. 27 — The authorities searched today for the killer of Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor, who died early in the morning after he was shot by an intruder at his home south of the city.

Investigators continued to comb Taylor’s house and to examine his past in search of clues that might indicate why someone broke into his luxurious one-story home in the quiet, upscale suburb of Palmetto Bay early Monday morning and fired two bullets at him. One of the bullets flew wide, but the other severed a major artery in his thigh, causing a fatal loss of blood.

The death plunged the Redskins’ organization into mourning and stunned South Florida, where Taylor had been a star player at the University of Miami. Family and friends remembered him as an extraordinarily talented athlete who, after a turbulent start in the N.F.L. on and off the field, seemed to have reoriented his life, particularly after the birth of his daughter 18 months ago.

“Many of his fans loved him because the way he played football,” said a statement from his father, Pedro Taylor, the police chief in Florida City, in southern Miami-Dade County. “Many of his opponents feared him the way he approached the game. Others misunderstood him, many appreciated him and his family loved him.”