A Florida man and his wife are dead after a murder-suicide resulting from an argument over watching football Monday night.
Jason Kenney, 47, also shot and critically wounded his stepdaughter after killing his wife.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said it was called to the scene just before 11 p.m. by a woman who reported that her 12-year-old neighbor had run to her home to ask her to call 911 because his mom and dad were fighting. The boy said he heard a gunshot at he left the house at the behest of his mother.
Detectives arrived and found Crystal Kenney dead in the living room with a gunshot to her head and the wife’s 13-year-old daughter in her bedroom with two gunshot wounds. The girl was taken to a hospital, where she was in critical but stable condition. A 1-year-old girl was asleep in her crib, unharmed.
Police said that Kenney 47 fled the scene in his truck after shooting his wife and stepdaughter. He called his sister, who does not live in Florida, and told her he had done something “terrible” but wasn’t “going to jail for the rest of my life.” He told his sister she would “see it on the news.”
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.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Featured image: Jason Kenney/Polk County Sheriff’s Office]
