Kansas City Chiefs Player Kills Girlfriend and Himself
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Peter Aiken/Getty Images(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) — Jovan Belcher, a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, committed suicide on Saturday in front of his coaches and police officers outside the team’s stadium, shortly after he fatally shot his girlfriend, police said.
“We heard that they had been arguing in the past [and] as far as recently, they’d been arguing before the shooting occurred this morning,” Kansas City Police spokesman Darin Snapp told ABC News Radio.
Kasandra Perkins, Belcher’s 22-year-old girlfriend, recently had a 3-month-old daughter with Belcher, according to police.
Kansas City Police were first alerted something was wrong by the girlfriend’s mother.
“The individual that called, the mother of the victim, stated that her daughter’s boyfriend is the one who shot her and he is a Chiefs player,” Kansas City Police spokesman Darin Snapp told ABC News Radio.
Shortly thereafter, Snapp said the player drove to Arrowhead Stadium and police were called.
“When the officers arrived, when they were pulling up, they actually observed a black male who had a gun to his head and he was talking to a couple of coaches out in the parking lot,” Snapp said. “As officers pulled up, and began to park, that’s when they heard the gunshot and it appears the individual took his own life.”
Kansas City is scheduled to host the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. The game will still be played, according to a statement from the Kansas City Chiefs Public Relations Office.
In a statement issued to ESPN, the Kansas City Chiefs said they are “cooperating with authorities in their investigation.”
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio