A drunken Florida man brutally murdered his wife and shot his 13-year-old stepdaughter in the face before killing himself following an argument over him wanting to watch Monday Night Football, police said, according to the New York Post. Hours after shooting his wife Crystal Kenney dead, 47-year-old Jason Kenney shot himself in a shed.
The shocking crime took place after Crystal suggested that Jason turn off the San Francisco 49ers and Indianapolis Colts game on Sunday, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a press conference. Jason had been drinking, and Crystal’s demand triggered a huge fight.
Crystal asked her 12-year-old son to call 911. The boy quickly ran to a neighbor’s house, where he heard the sound of gunshots.
Police arrived to discover that Crystal had been shot dead. Her 13-year-old daughter had been shot in the face and shoulder. The teen was taken to a local hospital, where she is now recovering.
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“‘I begged him, don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me, and he shot me anyway,’” the teen told investigators, according to Judd.
The boy who called 911 and the couple’s 1-year-old daughter, who was found asleep in her crib, were not hurt. Jason was the stepfather of Crystal’s two older children.
Jason initially fled the scene and called his sister in upstate New York, saying he had “done something” bad and that they would never talk again.
Jason later drove to his father’s home, where he was tracked down by cops. He shot himself dead as deputies tried to get him out of a shed.
Who was Jason Kenney?
Not much has been revealed about Jason, except that he was involved in substance abuse, and that Crystal was a regular victim of domestic violence by him, according to her family, per NBC News. However, there had been no such reports to local authorities, Judd noted.
“Frankly, I don’t want to sound sinister, but the only thing he did right that night was shoot himself after those horrible deeds,” Judd said.
While searching the family’s home, deputies found a note Crystal wrote to Jason, telling him to get help for his substance abuse.“You’re drinking, you’re using cocaine again. This is not the way the family should be. You need God,” the note stated.
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“We have no idea whether or not she wrote the letter [the night of the shooting] or this has been built up over time. That will be part of the investigation into the future,” Judd said.
The children who survived are now in the custody of their grandparents.
“The entire family was destroyed,” Judd said. “Our homicide detectives are distraught. When you go in there, there is a beautiful Christmas tree with lots of Christmas presents under it, just like the nuclear family should be.”
Judd called the teen’s survival a “Christmas miracle. ”We later learned the bullet in the face hit her on the bridge of the nose [then] went straight up and out the top of her head,” he said.
“That’s a Christmas miracle,” he added.
Stephanie Rourie, Crystal’s sister, promised to keep the victim’s memory alive. “I would tell my sister that I’m sorry that this happened to you. You didn’t deserve this. I promise I will love your babies so hard,” she told NBC affiliate WFLA.
Stephanie added, “The world deserves to know your story and the type of person you were. Her babies will never not know the type of mother she was. The love and the strength she had for them. They will know that. That will never stop.”
