The tragic discovery of Dallas Cowboys player Marshawn Kneeland’s body occurred after he took his own life, following a high-speed police pursuit reaching 145 mph.
A bodycam video captured by law enforcement and shared by the Daily Mail reveals an officer’s shocked reaction, stating, “It is lurid.”
At 24, Kneeland ended his life with a gunshot to the head inside a porta-potty in Plano, Texas. The incident followed a dramatic chase that began when Kneeland failed to stop for a traffic violation in Frisco on November 6.
During the late-night pursuit, Kneeland crashed his Dodge Charger and attempted to escape on foot. Despite the extensive, and occasionally disorganized, search efforts, his body was not located until hours later.
Footage from the Texas Department of Safety depicts four local officers standing by the portable restroom, situated in a parking lot near a high-rise building, as state troopers approach.
A trail of blood extends from the porta-potty, leading to Kneeland’s slumped form. He is dressed in a black sweatshirt displaying the word ‘elevate’ in white letters.
This is the horrific moment cops find the body of Dallas Cowboys star Marshawn Kneeland
Kneeland, 24, shot himself in the head in a porta-potty in Plano, Texas, after evading police
The late Cowboys star had only scored his first NFL touchdown for the team two days before
In at times muffled audio, one officer can be heard highlighting a slight problem with the investigation, with the words: ‘It’s going to suck because the shell cases (indecipherable).’
Another officer is seen flying a drone just off the ground to film for further evidence in the tragedy involving the rising star who had scored his first NFL touchdown only 48 hours earlier.
Kneeland’s Dodge Charger can be seen in bodycam footage from Trooper Gabriel Sanchez, it’s trunk open and hazards flashing, after it crashed into a vehicle driven by a woman.
The player pulled a desperate U-turn to throw off cops, causing the crash according to a voice in the video.
One female trooper involved in the chase can be heard saying of the other driver: ’She’s crying, she’s like freaking out, she’s just very freaked out. He hit her hard.’
This was before his body had been found.
A male trooper says: ‘He ran southwest.’ Another says: ‘We thought we had him.’
Kneeland also bizarrely ‘came back for his phone or something then took off,’ said another.
Kneeland was driving so fast the woman at the wheel of the pick-up he smashed into told police: ‘When I saw him come up behind me in my rearview mirror I was like, there’s no way you’re going to get through this.’
Bodycam footage obtained by the Daily Mail shows trooper Kaitlynn King inspecting Kneeland’s Dodge outside and also inside the tan colored interior. The offside front wing was smashed and both front air bags had been activated.
Bodycam footage also showed the woman Kneeland crashed into being interviewed by cops
The officer then went over to the woman driver of a Ford F350, which had a completely flat front nearside tire.
The woman, in a blue and red patterned dress, said she believed the man who hit her was Hispanic with black hair. It was later that she was told the man was unlikely to be Hispanic.
She said in an emotional retelling: ’To be honest, when he hit me, I thought he was checking to see if I was OK.’
Pointing, she continued: ‘But then he went that way and then I saw him coming back and so, OK, maybe he’s like coming to check on me.
‘I’m sorry, I’m like shaking.
‘When I tell you the rate of his headlines in the rearview mirror was… he hit me at 160 it felt like, I’m not going to lie.’
The officer then told her: ’The Charger is registered to a Dallas Cowboys player, so probably not a Hispanic man.’
At which the woman replied stunned: ‘What!’
After recounting how she thought she might die, she continued: ’They (Kneeland’s lights) were flying at me. If it wasn’t for an F350 I don’t know how different it would have been.’
Other footage from the scene shockingly reveals that Catalina Mancera, Kneeland’s girlfriend, was handcuffed and put in the back of a police car after she arrived in the vicinity of officer’s desperate hours-long search amid her fears for her boyfriend and his mental health.
Kneeland’s girlfriend Catalina Mancera (pictured) was also placed in handcuffs on the night
Mancera was stopped and detained in the area amid police’s frantic search for Kneeland
She was placed in a squad car as an officer searched her vehicle for the defensive end
At around 11:16pm local time, Mancera, 22, had driven to the scene of the search area when an officer pulled her over after identifying the white Buick she was driving as being registered to Kneeland.
The officer ordered Mancera to step out of the car before handcuffing her and informing her that she was being detained for matching a suspect vehicle.
When asked what she was doing in the area, Mancera claimed that her directions weren’t working. She was then guided to the squad car and instructed to sit in the front, while the officer checked her vehicle for Kneeland.
Following the search, officers released Mancera from the back of the squad car but continued to monitor her as she remained on the scene.
Later footage showed her being questioned again with police tracking her vehicle in the hope that she would be able to lead them to Kneeland.
She is captured on footage telling police he was armed, had a history of mental illness and would ‘end it all.’
‘The girlfriend has his location. But she’s not giving it to us … She’s like, “He’s going to kill himself. I can’t tell you where he’s at,”‘ a Frisco police officer said. Authorities later said Mancera worked with officers to find Kneeland.
Less than an hour earlier at around 10:35pm, Texas State Troopers began to pursue Kneeland’s vehicle.
Officers initially unaware that the driver they were pursuing was Kneeland. After a search of the vehicle’s identification number revealed it was owned by the NFL player, they presumed it to have been stolen.
Yet, around 10 minutes after losing site of the battle, Kneeland crashed into a pickup and he fled on foot, sparking the widespread search that included K-9 sniffer dogs, drones and even Texas state troopers firing pepper balls into drainage tunnels.
Kneeland’s vehicle was discovered abandoned on a grassy area by the side of the road
His girlfriend sounded the alarm to the police after she received a concerning text message
Kneeland’s vehicle, which he said to have been driving at speeds higher than 145mph, ended up in a grassy area beside the tollway in Frisco near an office park area with office buildings, businesses and apartments.
Troopers said an empty holster was found underneath the driver’s seat of Kneeland’s car.
Still unaware that the man they were pursuing was Kneeland, officers searched the shopping complex before being led to a wooded area by a K-9. Shortly after 11:30pm, they then narrowed in on a culvert, a closed pipe that helps manage the flow of water.
‘Frisco K-9. If you’re in this tunnel, I’m going to send my dog in here. He is going to bite you. This is your last opportunity,’ a Frisco officer said.
After authorities fired pepper balls into the tunnels and sent a drone into them, they did not find Kneeland inside.
At around 1:32am, police finally located Kneeland’s deceased body inside a port-a-potty.
Mancera had sounded the alarm to the police after she received a concerning text message from the NFL star, saying that he would ‘end it all.’
In devastating 911 audio, dispatchers could be heard relaying information from Kneeland’s girlfriend, who reportedly said that he had a history of mental illness and that he was armed.
Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer revealed in the days following Kneeland’s death that Mancera is pregnant. The franchise has set up a memorial fund to support her and their unborn child.
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or at http://988lifeline.org.
