Another Killer Shoots Himself As Police Close In

"KANSAS CITY, MO — With his coach and colleagues looking on, a Kansas City Chiefs linebacker shot and killed himself outside the team’s practice facility Saturday morning, less than an hour after he killed his girlfriend, according to the police.

"The player was identified as Jovan Belcher, 25, said Darin Snapp, a spokesman for the Kansas City Police Department, and his girlfriend was identified as Kasandra Perkins, 22.

"The harrowing morning began at a house on Crysler Avenue in Kansas City that Belcher shared with Perkins. About 7 a.m., with his mother and infant daughter in another room, Belcher shot Perkins multiple times, Snapp said.

"When the police arrived after the shooting, Belcher’s mother, Cheryl E. Shepherd, told them that her son had shot Perkins, Snapp said. Shepherd told the police that Perkins was like her own daughter, and that it was not immediately clear what had triggered the violence. Perkins was taken to a hospital, where she died a short time later, the police said.

"After shooting Perkins, the police said, Belcher made the 15-minute drive to the team’s practice facility at Arrowhead Stadium.

"The Kansas City police received a call a little after 8 a.m. from a member of the Chiefs security staff who said he saw Belcher pull up to the parking lot with a gun and that Belcher was threatening suicide, Snapp said. When the officers arrived, they saw Coach Romeo Crennel, General Manager Scott Pioli and another Chiefs employee, who was not identified, standing in the parking lot talking to Belcher.

"Snapp said that they had been talking about four or five minutes — the time it took for the police to arrive. As the officers pulled up, Belcher walked away from Crennel and Pioli and shot himself, Snapp said."

From The New York Times...