NFL Game Argument Turns Deadly As Florida Man Kills Wife, Shoots Daughter, Then Dies By Suicide

A 47-year-old man in Polk County, Florida, fatally shot his wife, critically injured his 13-year-old stepdaughter, and later killed himself, following an argument over a televised NFL Monday Night Football game, authorities confirmed. The shooting occurred on December 22, 2025, just days before Christmas.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the suspect, Jason Kenney, opened fire after a domestic dispute escalated when his wife, Crystal Kenney, asked him to turn off the game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Indianapolis Colts. Investigators said Kenney had been drinking at the time.

Argument Over NFL Game Turns Deadly

According to Sheriff Judd, the confrontation intensified as the couple argued inside their home. During the dispute, Crystal Kenney instructed her 12-year-old son to run to a neighbour’s house and call the police. As the boy fled, he heard gunshots.

Deputies responding to the emergency call found Crystal Kenney dead from a gunshot wound. Inside a bedroom, officers discovered the 13-year-old girl with two gunshot wounds – one to her shoulder and another to her face.

At a press conference, Judd recounted the injured girl’s statement to investigators. “She said, ‘I begged him, don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me, and he shot me anyway,’” Judd said.

Despite sustaining a bullet wound that entered the bridge of her nose and exited through the top of her head, the teenager survived. Judd described her survival as “a Christmas miracle”. She remains in critical but stable condition in the hospital.

Shooter Flees, Later Found Dead

The couple’s one-year-old daughter was found unharmed, asleep in her crib. The 12-year-old son was also unharmed.

After the shooting, Jason Kenney fled the home and contacted his sister, telling her he had “done something very, very bad” and that the next time she saw him would be “on the news”, according to Sheriff Judd.

Kenney then drove to his father’s residence in Lake Wales, where deputies later located him inside a shed. As officers attempted to negotiate with him, they heard a single gunshot. Kenney was subsequently pronounced dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Investigators later recovered a handwritten note at the family home, written by Crystal Kenney, urging her husband to seek help for substance abuse. The note read: “You’re drinking, you’re using cocaine again. This is not the way the family should be. You need God.”

Authorities confirmed there were no prior reports of domestic violence involving the family. The surviving children have since been placed in the care of Crystal Kenney’s parents, officials said.