A Florida man fatally shot his wife, critically wounded his stepdaughter and then killed himself after the parents argued over changing the channel from “Monday Night Football,” authorities said.
Jason Kenney, 47, had been watching his favorite team, the San Francisco 49ers, beat the Indianapolis Colts when his 38-year-old wife, Crystal Kenney, “told him that she did not want to watch football” anymore, according to a statement from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
Jason Kenney had “been drinking during the evening” in Lakeland, and at about 11 p.m., with the game well in hand for San Francisco, “an argument began when Crystal Kenney suggested they watch something else on television and the argument got really heated,” Sheriff Grady Judd told reporters.
Crystal Kenney told her son, 12, to go to a neighbor to call 911, and as the boy was “leaving the house, he hears a gunshot,” Grady added.
Responding deputies found Crystal Kenney’s body and her critically wounded 13-year-old daughter, officials said. Deputies also found the couple’s baby girl asleep in her crib, unharmed.
“That’s a Christmas miracle” the 13-year-old girl wasn’t killed, Judd said. “Jason shot her twice and intended to kill her.”
The girl, who was shot in the face but is expected to survive, had the strength to speak to investigators.
“She said, ‘I begged him, don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me, and he shot me anyway,” according to Judd.
The shooter fled, called his sister in upstate New York and told her, “I’ve done something very, very bad, very bad” and “This is the last time you’ll ever talk to me,” according to Judd.
“You’ll see me on the news, but I am not going to jail. I’m not going to jail for the rest of my life,” he told his sister, according to Judd.
When deputies tracked down the shooter at his late father’s home, they heard a single gunshot come from the property’s shed, Judd said.
Back at the couple’s house, deputies found an undated note from Crystal Kenney telling her husband, “You know you’re drinking, you’re using cocaine again,” Judd said, quoting the note.
“This is not the way the family should be,” she allegedly wrote. “You need God.”
Deputies cannot determine when the note was written.
“We don’t know when she wrote the note. It’s not dated. There’s no time, there’s no indication, but it was open,” Judd said. “So did she write it as they argued earlier in the evening? Or had it been some period of time? We can’t determine that.”
The woman’s family had said she was a regular victim of domestic violence by her husband — though there had been no such reports to local authorities, Judd said.
“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.
Stephanie Rourie, the victim’s sister, promised to keep Crystal’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,” Rourie told NBC affiliate WFLA.
“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.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 8788.
