A horrific domestic violence incident in Florida, sparked by an argument over watching Monday Night Football, has left a mother dead, her teenage daughter fighting for her life, and the perpetrator dead by suicide just days before Christmas.
A Fatal Argument Over Football
The violence erupted late on Monday night in Polk County. According to Sheriff Grady Judd, 47-year-old Jason Kenney had been drinking while watching the San Francisco 49ers versus Indianapolis Colts NFL game in a shed behind the family home. He later returned inside for the final minutes of the match.
His wife, Crystal Kenney, a mother-of-three, objected to him continuing to watch the television. What began as a confrontation over control of the TV rapidly escalated out of control. As the situation intensified, Crystal instructed her 12-year-old son to run to a neighbour's house and call 911.
The Shooting and a Christmas Miracle
The boy fled, but as he left the property he heard gunshots. Deputies arrived within minutes to a scene of devastation. Inside the home, they discovered Crystal Kenney dead from a fatal gunshot wound to the head.
In a bedroom, they found her 13-year-old daughter critically injured, having been shot twice—once in the shoulder and once in the face. Sheriff Judd recounted the girl's harrowing words: "She said, 'I begged him, don't shoot me, don't shoot me, don't shoot me, and he shot me anyway.'"
Miraculously, the bullet that struck her face hit the bridge of her nose, travelled upward, and exited through the top of her head. "That's a Christmas miracle," Judd stated. The teenager remains hospitalised in critical but stable condition, alert and able to speak.
Perpetrator's Flight and Final Acts
After the attack, Jason Kenney fled the scene before deputies arrived. During his drive, he called his sister in upstate New York. "He told her he had done something very, very bad," Sheriff Judd said, adding that Kenney told his sister, "the next time you see me will be on the news."
Kenney then drove to his father's home, where he barricaded himself inside a shed. Deputies tracked him to the location and attempted to negotiate his surrender. Moments later, a single gunshot was heard. Jason Kenney was found dead inside the shed, having taken his own life.
During a subsequent search of the family home, investigators uncovered a handwritten note from Crystal to her husband. The note, read by Sheriff Judd, urged Jason to seek help: "You're drinking, you're using cocaine again. This is not the way the family should be. You need God."
Children Left Behind and Community Devastation
A one-year-old daughter shared by the couple was also in the home at the time of the shooting but was found unharmed, asleep in her crib. All three children are now in the custody of their maternal grandparents.
The sheriff said the case has devastated everyone involved, including seasoned homicide detectives. "He just absolutely destroyed a family," Judd said. "Literally, not to mention the mental health of two children without their mother and a father three days before Christmas."
Judd described the tragic scene: "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. The only thing he did right that night was shoot himself."
