On the morning of December 1, 2012, in Kansas City, Missouri, 22-year-old Kasandra Perkins was shot and killed by her boyfriend, Jovan Belcher, a 25-year-old linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs. The couple's three-month-old daughter was in the home at the time of the incident. The tragedy unfolded after an argument between the couple, reportedly after Perkins returned late from a concert.
Belcher shot Perkins multiple times in their home.
His mother, who was living with them, heard the gunshots and entered the room to find her son apologizing to a dying Perkins before kissing her on the forehead. After kissing his infant daughter and apologizing to his mother, Belcher drove his Bentley to the Chiefs' practice facility near Arrowhead Stadium. There, he encountered the team's general manager, Scott Pioli, and coach, Romeo Crennel.
Holding a gun to his head, Belcher expressed that he had been dealing with significant problems at home and had just committed a terrible act. Despite attempts by Pioli and Crennel to de-escalate the situation, Belcher knelt behind a car, made the sign of the cross, and took his own life. The case was quickly ruled a murder-suicide by the Jackson County prosecutor's office, and with the suspect deceased, there were no arrests to be made.
Subsequent investigations and reports revealed more details about the circumstances leading to the tragedy. An autopsy showed that Belcher had a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit at the time of the events. Friends of the couple indicated that they had a history of arguments. In the months before the murder-suicide, Belcher had reportedly sent text messages to another woman he was seeing, complaining about Perkins and even stating he 'would shoot' her if she didn't leave him alone. A later examination of Belcher's brain revealed he had been suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy a degenerative brain disease found in many former football players.
