Jovan Belcher,NFl player with the Kansas City Chiefs, committed suicide in front of his coach and general manager after allegedly killing his girlfriend Saturday morning.
The calm Saturday turned into a tragedy for the NFL community and fans when Kansas City Chiefs' coach Romeo Crennel and General Manager Scott Pioli were asked to hurry to the parking lot where they met their linebacker Belcher holding a gun to his head.
He thanked his coach and manager for giving him a chance in the NFL and as police arrived, he walked back about 30 feet west toward an empty parking lot and shot himself dead as the helpless two men looked on.
Belcher had apparently shot his 22-year-old girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, before driving five miles to the team's practice facility at Arrowhead Stadium. Belcher's 3-month-old daughter Zoey was in the house when he fatally shot Perkins who died about 30 minutes after she was shot.
According to a Reuters report, Police spokesman Darin Snapp said that Perkins' mother, who had recently moved into the home from New York, witnessed the killing and informed the police. Mother said Perkins and Belcher quarreled just before the incident, but said the player never physically abused her daughter before.
Kansas City Mayor Sly James described the violent incident as "part of the tragedy of urban living in this country." "Handguns all over the place, people blowing themselves away, and others. At some point, we have to get a handle on this kind of stuff. We are not doing a good job of it," James was quoted in the Reuters report.
Despite the sad news and the devastating shock wave it has sent over to the NFL community, Kansas City Chief announced that their Sunday's game against the Carolina Panthers at Arrowhead would be played as scheduled.
