Fall 2025 was shaping up as a busy, exciting time for newly recruited Evansville Police Officer Sam Taylor and his wife, Cierra. After years of living away from home, the Tecumseh High School sweethearts were planting roots in Evansville with their then-two-year-old son, Eddie.
Hired the previous March after working one year for the Greensburg (Indiana) Police Department and six years in the U.S. Army, Sam remained in the Army Reserve and still held probationary status with EPD. He and Cierra stayed with family while house-hunting in Evansville, and on the afternoon of Sept. 20, they attended an inspection for a home they had under contract. Sam then hit the streets at 10 p.m. “It was my first day on the fourth phase of field officer training,” he recalls. “It was my first night working third shift.”
He retains little memory of the incident that night that dramatically changed his life. While Sam, training officer Seth Gorman, and other officers investigated a car theft and an attempted carjacking after midnight in a convenience store parking lot on East Virginia Street, Sam was struck twice by gunfire and fell to the pavement. Upon releasing officers’ bodycam footage of the shooting, EPD Chief Philip Smith said Sam did not have a chance to draw his weapon.
Jailani Chew faces multiple felony charges, including attempted murder, for shooting Sam. Smith said Gorman returned fire at Chew, striking him. Chew, 18 at the time of the shooting, is jailed on a $1 million bond and awaiting trial. Sam, 27, lost core function and is paralyzed from the chest down.
“I kind of remember driving around the new area I was going to be assigned to on the South Side,” Sam says. “Seth went over some of his expectations as a trainer (and) for me, the trainee. I remember him getting a phone call … and after that, it’s kind of fuzzy. I just remember waking up in the hospital.”
“They had Sam’s phone number in as his emergency contact, so they couldn’t get a hold of me that night,” Cierra recalls. When she arrived at Deaconess Midtown Hospital, her husband was intubated and in stable condition. He remained hospitalized for five days. During a news conference the day after the incident, an emotional Smith told reporters that Sam “put our community before himself.” Mayor Stephanie Terry, also fighting back tears, condemned the act of gun violence: “We need to be better,” she said.
The gunshots damaged Taylor’s spinal cord at the junction between the eighth cervical nerve and the first thoracic nerve. After leaving Deaconess Midtown Sept. 26 with a police escort to Evansville Regional Airport, Sam flew to Atlanta, Georgia, and spent around 12 weeks at the Shepherd Center, where patients with spinal cord injuries are treated. The Shepherd Center is also where Ben Trockman — the current Evansville City Council president — was taken in 2006 after being seriously injured in a bicycle motocross accident.
While in Atlanta, Sam and Cierra (who works remotely) say they felt the outpouring of concern from Evansville and the larger law enforcement community during that stressful, uncertain time. Released on Dec. 19 in a send-off attended by Atlanta Police officers, Sam returned to Indiana in time for Christmas.
Family assistance — a key reason why the Lynnville, Indiana, natives moved back to the Evansville area from Greensburg — became critical in ways Sam and Cierra had not expected. Eddie stayed with relatives and was taken to Atlanta for visits. “My aunt and uncle, my in-laws watched my little one while I was down at Shepherd and in the hospital … and when we first got home, we lived with them for a couple weeks,” Sam says. “My two cousins and my brother and his wife also have been very helpful.”
Now living in their own apartment in Newburgh, the Taylors have found countless other large and small gestures of support. Clay Conner, a member of Indiana University’s 2026 national championship football team, had his teammates sign a ball for Sam, who received the gift on Christmas Day. The Evansville First Responders Hockey Team hosted a benefit game, and organizations, businesses, and community members conducted fundraising activities including cookouts and baked goods sales. Sophia, a child who won EPD’s badge coloring contest, donated money from her piggy bank.
Acting on Chief Smith’s recommendation, the EPD Merit Commission on Oct. 13 issued the Serious Injury Award to Sam. Along with Gorman, Officers Cory Staats and Herbert Adams, and Detective Jeff Breivogel, he also received the Gold Merit Award for their actions during the shooting. Life Saver Awards were issued to Gorman, Staats, Officers Jaylan Hyneman and Colter Trueblood, and Sgt. Blake Hollins.
“It was really cool to see the outreach, and I still feel bad that I didn’t get to respond to every single one of them. It was just too many,” Sam says.
One of the most significant outreaches to the Taylors has come from the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. Based in New York and founded after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the foundation is known for organizing “climbs” of 1,250 steps representing the distance first responders traveled to reach the top of the burning Twin Towers. Through its Smart Home Program, Tunnel to Towers builds or modifies homes for law enforcement, first responders, and military members injured in the line of duty. “We applied for it, and a bunch of people in the community actually recommended us for it. We got approved for that, and we’re going to be in the apartment until they find some land to build us a house on,” Sam says. “That’s just a huge blessing to have.” Earlier this month, the JD Sheth Foundation, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 73, and Evansville Police Foundation teamed up with auto dealership Romain Cross Pointe and contributed $30,000 toward the purchase of a new truck for the Taylors. “Any kind of adaptive equipment, we’ve learned, is all very expensive,” Sam says. His wheelchair alone cost $13,000.
Another major event is coming up. A June 20 golf scramble at Boonville Country Club will raise funds for a four-wheel drive wheelchair called a Coyote. Manufactured by Outrider USA, “It will help me be able to hunt and fish, kind of get back to those activities that I did before I was injured,” Sam says. He used to play golf at the same club with his uncle Adam Hopkins, who is organizing the scramble.
Sam’s upbeat attitude is reflected in two words — “too easy” — that have been a signature phrase since his injury. “It’s a phrase that’s used in the military quite a bit,” he explains. “You’re given a lot of orders, and people would just answer, ‘Roger!’ or ‘Too easy!’ or something like that, and ‘Too easy!’ just kind of stuck with me.”
Cierra adds, “It was to a point where family members would make fun of him a little bit because even on the phone, every time there was a break, he’d be like, ‘too easy.’”
Working with a physical therapist twice a week, greater independence is Sam’s immediate goal. “I’ve gotten to a point where I have kind of maxed out life skills in physical therapy, and I’m leaning more toward a wellness therapy — strength and conditioning and trying to get stronger and build my stamina,” he says.
His routine involves a lot of weights and cardio. “I just want to get as healthy as possible, as strong as possible, as independent as possible,” he adds. “I want to travel and spend time with my family and would like to in some way, shape or form help other people in my situation.”
Sam says he does ponder what the severe injuries have taken away from him, but in the same breath, he states, “I’m also very grateful to still be here.”
WHEN YOU GO
“Too Easy” Sam Taylor Golf Scramble
8 a.m.-6 p.m. June 20, Boonville Country Club, 5244 IN-61
Registration is $100 for a single player, $375 for a team
