Tragedy struck in Florida as a domestic dispute over a football game escalated into a murder-suicide, leaving a man and his wife dead. The incident also left the man’s stepdaughter critically injured.
Jason Kenney, 47, fatally shot his wife, Crystal Kenney, and wounded her 13-year-old daughter during the altercation. According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the authorities were alerted just before 11 p.m. A concerned neighbor called 911 after a 12-year-old boy sought help, explaining that his parents were fighting and he had heard a gunshot after his mother urged him to leave the house.
Upon arrival, detectives discovered Crystal Kenney deceased in the living room with a gunshot wound to her head. Her daughter was found in her bedroom, suffering from two gunshot injuries, and was rushed to the hospital where she remains in critical yet stable condition. Meanwhile, a 1-year-old child in the house was found unharmed, sleeping in her crib.
Following the shooting, Kenney fled the scene in his truck. He reached out to his sister, who resides outside Florida, admitting to having committed a “terrible” act and declaring he wouldn’t spend his life in prison. He ominously mentioned she would soon hear about it on the news.
Kenney eventually drove to his late father’s property in Lake Wales, where he concealed himself in a shed. As deputies arrived and urged him to surrender, they heard a gunshot and found him dead inside.
Then he drove to his deceased father’s home in Lake Wales and hid in a shed on the property. When deputies arrived and called to him to come out, they heard a single gunshot. They found him dead inside the shed.
“Three days before Christmas, this man shot and killed his wife, shot his stepdaughter, and then shot and killed himself,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. “This is horrific, but destroying a family and the mental health of these children so close to Christmas is especially horrific. We will do everything we can to help this family get through this difficult time.”
The sheriff’s office said detectives determined that Kenney had been in a shed on his property Monday night and decided to inside and watch the end of an NFL football game in the living room, where his wife was. She objected to watching football, and the couple began arguing. At that point, she yelled to her son to call 911, and he ran to the neighbor’s home.
Judd said the stepdaughter begged Kenney not to shoot her after he’d already killed her mother.
