Taylor Jeffrey Johnson, a professional PUBG player better known as TaylorJay, has died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound following a police manhunt. Johnson was 24-years-old and played PUBG competitively from 2018 to 2020, competing for teams eUnited, Exodus, and YAHO. He earned over $16,000 during the span of his career, and had last competed with YAHO in September 2020.
Johnson fled from North Carolina to Pennsylvania following an altercation with a woman, thought to be his ex-girlfriend, which ended with him shooting her multiple times. The shooting was believed to be the result of a domestic dispute. Although the woman was transported to a nearby hospital and is now listed as in stable condition, it appears Johnson believed he had killed her and fled North Carolina.
It is unknown why Johnson chose to go to Pennsylvania, but Pennsylvania State Police were notified that he had entered Adams County around 3 pm the day following the shooting. Johnson was forced to abandon his vehicle after hitting a spike strip on Route 234, which immobilized it. When Pennsylvania State Police found his abandoned vehicle, the search then continued on foot into a nearby wooded area.
Pennsylvania State Police searched for Johnson through the wooded area for nearly five hours. Police finally caught up to him after a lengthy search and attempted to place him into custody, but Johnson shot himself. Despite authorities’ attempted life-saving treatment at the scene, Johnson died from his injuries. The search was assisted by several other local departments, such as the Special Emergency Response Team and the state police helicopter. Johnson did not have contact with anyone else prior to the shooting and no other injuries have been reported.
Following the news breaking, Valorant player Skyler “Relyks” Weaver made mention of the mental health struggles that Johnson had been going through with a post on Twitter. Relyks stated that Johnson had been talking about some conspiracy theories and ended up shutting down his social media accounts after receiving substantial blowback.
Jaden “Vegas” James, Johnson’s former teammate from eUnited, also made a post following the news regarding Johnson and praised the positive energy and outlook of his friend.
“When I first met Taylor he had the most positive energy of anyone I had ever met, he always encouraged me to better myself and tried to make me smile,” Vegas said. “When he asked me for a tryout I gave him the chance and his positive energy blew me away.”
Source: Dexerto