Florida man kills wife over NFL game, shoots 13-year-old stepdaughter, police say at news conference

Hello everyone, thank you for being with us today. As you know, any time you report on a murder, it's a sad situation. It is hugely sad when it's around Christmas. And what I'm about to describe to you is even ten times that worse. And it started last night in Highland City. Jason Kenney, who's 47, is married to Crystal Kenney. And Jason's been drinking during the evening,

and he's watching his football team, the 49ers, play football. Well, they're having a good night. They're winning. In fact, they won big. Sometime toward the end of the game,

at around 11 o'clock, an argument began when Crystal suggested they watch something else on television. And the argument got really heated. Crystal told her 12-year-old son to go call 911.

So the 12-year-old flees to the neighbor's house in order to dial 911, and as he's leaving the house, he hears a gunshot. Deputies arrive within less than five minutes of the calls for service. And when we enter the house, we see that Crystal Kenny, the wife of Jason, is shot in the head and dead. But it gets worse. We go into the bedroom and we see a 13 year old child, a little girl. She

shot twice. She shot in the shoulder and she shot in the face. We later learned the bullet in the face hit her on the bridge of the nose, went straight up and out the top of her head. She is alive in critical condition but stable at Lakeland Regional Health and is alert and talking. That's a Christmas miracle. Jason shot her twice and intended to kill her. He didn't, however, shoot his biological child, thank God, who was one year old and in a crib.

He shot his stepdaughter. He didn't get a chance to shoot his stepson, who had run to dial 911. Jason then jumps into his vehicle and flees the scene just prior to deputies arriving. He is going toward Lake Wells. He calls his sister in upstate New York, and he says, I've done something very, very bad.

Very bad. I did something terrible. And this is the last time you'll ever talk to me. You'll see me on the news. but I am not going to jail. I'm not going to jail for the rest of my life." So he goes to his father's house, which apparently is currently in probate. His father's deceased,

and there's a friend staying there. When he gets to the house, he immediately goes into a shed. Deputies now are tracking Jason. We set up a perimeter and start hailing for Jason to come out, to come out of this shed, which is adjacent to the home. And the deputies hear a single gunshot. When we make entrance into the shed we find that Jason has shot himself in the forehead and he too is deceased. I want you to think about this a minute.

As the investigations unfolded during the night and we're still in the preliminary stages and as I always say when we talk soon, whatever we give you today is subject to modification. We found a note that at some time in the past Crystal wrote and it was open where she told Jason you know you're drinking you're using cocaine again this is not the way the family should be you need God

crystal by the way goes to church every Sunday we don't know when she wrote the note it's not dated there's no time, there's no indication, but it was open. So did she write it as they argued earlier in the evening or had it been some period of time? We can't determine that. We also were able to talk to the 12-year-old, our Christmas miracle. She said, I begged him, don't shoot me, don't shoot me, don't shoot me, and he shot me anyway. This is things that are never supposed to happen. And certainly

we are all very, very happy that our little 13 year old girl is from every indication going to survive and thrive but the investigation is still underway. But this is a family disturbance that apparently had gone on for some time. We talked to another family member and that family member said, oh he's been beaten on her for a while. So we've checked our records to see if we received any calls at the residence and we have not. He has never been arrested for domestic violence. But bottom line is, three days before Christmas, he shot and

killed his wife. He shot his 13-year-old stepdaughter twice and intended to kill her. Called his sister and confessed that he did something terrible and then rather than be arrested shot and killed himself. Quite frankly I don't want to sound sinister but the only thing he did right that night was shoot himself after those horrible deeds. If he felt that way he could have taken himself out and not hurt those two beautiful people. So, it's sad anytime,

it's horrific anytime, he had a chance, he could have gotten mental health help, we'd have done anything we could for him and the family in advance, but he just absolutely destroyed a family, literally, and the mental health of two children without their mama and an infant that will grow up without a mother and a father three days before Christmas.

Any questions?

You said the 12-year-old is asked not to be shot at. Do You said the 12-year-old that's asked not to be shot at. Did you mean the 13-year-old?

I meant the 13-year-old. The 12-year-old was the boy. The 13-year-old was the girl. The 13-year-old girl begged not to be shot. Please don't shoot me. Please don't shoot me.

And he shot her twice anyway. The 12 year old had fled out of the house and he, the 12 year old, heard the first gunshot as he was leaving.

Was it that neighbor that ended up being able to call 911?

He went to a neighbor's house and and 911 was dialed from the neighbor's house. Was the gun registered to him? We don't know who the gun's registered to, and you don't have to register guns in Florida. So we will do a background on the gun, but it's too early to determine ownership. But the reality is, in Florida, we don't register guns.

And I know you said there hadn't been prior domestic violence related calls. Did he have any other history of any sort of violence?

No criminal history.

What happens to these children now?

Well, right now they're with the grandparents. DCF's call. DCF will take custody of them. They are placed right now with grandparents. And long-term, the DCF and the grandparents will have to work

that out because, you know, I understand that the 12-year-old boy and the 13-year-old girl who was shot, that their father is in California some place, has never had any interaction with the children. That's the early information. And of course, the infants, mom and dad are

deceased. So the entire family was destroyed. And I must tell you, our homicide detectives are distraught. When they go in there, there's a beautiful Christmas tree with lots of Christmas presents under the tree, just like the nuclear family should be. And so they said we see this big beautiful Christmas tree, we see the presents wrapped underneath the tree, we see the evidence of a wonderful Christmas about to occur in this house. She goes to church, she tells him you need God, you're slipping into abuse of drugs and alcohol

and it ends up this way. And quite frankly it's not surprising some women protect their husbands and she never called on him. But apparently he's been known for injuring her in the past.

What's the message, just especially since it's Christmas time, to other families? I mean, I know

this is probably the worst possible. Sure, my message to everyone is there's always help, free help. Dial 9-1-1 and say, I need help. Call any human services. We'll all provide help. None of this had to occur. There's no reason for this to occur. How does an argument over a television program end up with a murder,

an attempted murder and a suicide. That should never happen. So call for help. We have all kinds of services. We will come to you. We do house calls.

We'll come to you and help you. Don't hurt yourself. Don't hurt a loved one.

The letter could have been what started this argument?

I have no idea. I have no idea about that. We have no idea that whether or not she wrote the letter last night or this has been built up over time that will be part of the investigation into the future but it was there and it was open for the detectives to see. It's not like we had to search it up in the house. You said it was found and it was open for the detectives to see. It's not like we had to search it

up in the house.

You said it was found out there?

No, it was found in the house.

You said this was in Highland City? Where specifically?

We normally don't give the address of victims and certainly we have victims that are still alive that potentially may live there, so Okay Now that's over you all have a Merry Christmas, okay, but tell everybody there's help So depression we see depression go up. We see suicides go up and So depression we see depression go up. We see suicides go up and All of this didn't have to happen. Okay? God bless you all. Bye-bye.