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Just days before Christmas, an argument over an NFL game turned deadly, leaving a woman murdered, her husband committing suicide and her 13-year-old daughter seriously injured.
Violence broke out in Lakeland, Florida after a dispute between 47-year-old Jason Kenny and his wife Crystal Kenny over watching the end of a Monday night football game. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a news conference Tuesday.
According to investigators, Kenny had been drinking all night and was initially inside a shed on the property and then went to watch a football game in the living room of the home where his wife was. When Crystal said she didn’t want to watch football, the argument escalated.
At one point, Crystal yelled at her 12-year-old son to call 911. Hearing the sound of bullets, he ran towards the neighbour’s house. Deputies arrived minutes later and found Crystal Kenny dead in the living room with a gunshot wound to the head.
They also found his 13-year-old daughter suffering from two bullet wounds – one on the shoulder and one on the face. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he remains in serious but stable condition.
“She said, ‘I begged him, don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me,’ and he shot me anyway,” Judd said.
“He absolutely destroyed a family,” the sheriff said. “Literally. Not to mention the mental health of two kids without their mom and dad three days before Christmas.”
At that time the couple’s one year old daughter was also inside the house. She was found sleeping in her crib and unharmed.
Investigators say after shooting his wife and stepdaughter, Kenny fled the scene in his truck. He called his sister, who lives in upstate New York, and told her he had done something “really bad” and that he was not going to jail.
Deputies later found Kenny hiding in a shed at his late father’s home in Lake Wales. When deputies ordered him to come out, they heard a single gunshot and found Kenny dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
“The entire family was destroyed,” Judd said. “And let me tell you, our homicide detectives are distraught. When they get there, there’s a beautiful Christmas tree with lots of Christmas presents under the tree, just like a nuclear family should be.”
According to neighbors, this was not the first time Kenny had misbehaved, although the Sheriff’s Office said there had been no previous calls for service at the home. Kenny had no criminal history.
However, Judd pointed to a handwritten note found inside the house that Crystal Kenny had written at some point in the past.
“We found a note that Crystal had written at some point earlier, and it was open, where she said to Jason, you know, ‘You’re drinking, you’re using cocaine again, the family shouldn’t be like this. You need God,'” Judd said.
The surviving children, two of whom were Crystal’s from a previous relationship, and the couple’s baby, are now in the care of their grandparents.
“It’s horrifying, but it’s especially horrifying to destroy the mental health of a family and these children so close to Christmas,” Judd said. “We will do everything we can to help this family get through this difficult time.”