Chiefs' Player Jevon Belcher involved in murder-suicide, shoots self at Arrowhead

[MoreLemonPledge]

No details yet. Just came across on the news.

edit: Sources say the player is Jovan Belcher. Police have yet to confirm.

An unnamed Kansas City Chiefs player has committed suicide at the team facility and authorities are on the scene, the police confirmed to ESPN on Saturday morning.

Local reports say police are operating with the belief the player fatally shot his girlfriend at a house before driving to Arrowhead Stadium and killing himself at around 8 a.m local time. The Associated Press reported the player's age to be 25.

"We can confirm that there was an incident at Arrowhead earlier this morning," the Chiefs said in a statement. "We are cooperating with authorities in their investigation."

There were no other injuries at the team facility, police said.

The Chiefs (1-10) were preparing to host the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

The NFL has told the Panthers to travel as planned to Kansas City on Saturday, the Charlotte Observer has reported, citing interim general manager Brandon Beane.


http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/86...-team-facility

[beach tribe]

I feel so bad for ***** and Crennel. To fail so horribly, know you're gonna lose your job, and then this....Damn.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Bob Dole

Oh. So THAT'S why the legal system has different degrees of murder and those manslaughter things.

Always wondered about that.

Yeah, I already gave up on that one. Good luck.

In the end, that's what makes the legal discussion relevant. There's a circumstance where society, through the legal system, has decided that someone should be given a slight break for what he's done.

Voluntary manslaughter is an acknowledgment of human frailty. Of the idea that people who will go on a message board and SWEAR they would never hurt a women...might, because history has shown that ordinary, rational, reasonable people have been known to do just that.

I'd like to believe that Jovan Belcher was an ordinary, rational, reasonable person that snapped because the alternative is even worse.

I guess that makes me a dumbass or something. Or maybe my screen name does. Shit, I can't keep these things straight.

[dirk digler]

@TimTebow
Tim Tebow

Wow... Unbelievable tragedy. My prayers go out to the entire Chiefs organization and their families.

[ChiefsOne]

This happens almost every day somewhere, and no one blames it on head trama. Just another crazy person or he snapped. No excuses.

[jAZ]

Originally Posted by Bob Dole

The strange part to Bob Dole as he thought about this while sitting in the woods all afternoon, is the realization that these guys, at least coming in to the league, are some of the most head-shrunk and evaluated employees on the freaking planet. How his situation and his mental state could escalate to the level of what he did is just ****ing mind boggling.

Much like soldiers, they are probably trained and raised in a... physical, violent, confrontation, push yourself through aggression... environment. So any baseline used to evaluate these players is heavily biased.

When compared against the full population, Javon's mental status might jump right out as troubling. But when evaluated against group of similar people, the red flag might be hard to find.

[RNR]

Originally Posted by CaliforniaChief

Just a quick note to thank all the people who registered from other fan bases today to express their sympathy to the Chiefs' organization/community. Tough day.

When something like this happens a rivalry between fans of different teams who play a"game" matters very little. It is a time to put silly things aside and be serious. Everyone simply feels terrible about senseless loss of life and the sorrow it brings~

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by silver & black

Raiders fan here. I just registered so I could give my sincere condolences to all the Chiefs fans and the Chiefs organisation in this time of sorrow. This goes beyond football and rivalries. I hope the league does the right thing and postpones your game.

You rock doode!

[jAZ]

Originally Posted by ChiefsOne

This happens almost every day somewhere, and no one blames it on head trama. Just another crazy person or he snapped. No excuses.

Sorry, but that makes no sense.

[KC Tattoo]

[KcMizzou]

By Bill Williamson | ESPN.com

This has been on my mind all day.

Still, after traveling 1,000 miles, I have yet to reach any comprehension. I have nothing profound to say about the horrible tragedy this morning in Kansas City that has galvanized the NFL world, other to say I have the same feeling you probably have -- utter sadness.

I awoke this morning to a text saying that a Kansas City Chiefs player murdered his girlfriend and then shot himself at the team’s facility. The text said the player involved was linebacker Jovan Belcher.

Like so many at ESPN, I immediately worked the phones in search of more details of this mind-numbing event. As I traveled to Denver, I thought about what I was going to write in this piece.

What could I say about this event that no one else is feeling or saying?

[+] Enlarge
Chiefs fansJohn Rieger/US PresswireChiefs fans place a sign outside the team's practice facility, site of Jovan Belcher's suicide.
Thus, I want to join the masses and express my thoughts and grief for the family of Belcher’s victim, Kasandra M. Perkins, who died at 22, and the couple's infant daughter. Lives were ended; others were ruined. So terrible.

I also feel for bad for Scott ***** and Romeo Crennel. The Chiefs' general manager and the head coach were talking to Belcher, according to police, just before the player walked away and shot himself.

What a terrible and emotional event to witness. This day will be with these men for the rest of their lives; they will never be able to shake it. ***** and Crennel went to work Saturday morning to put the finishing touches on another game week in a miserable season. Then they were thrust into the middle of a crisis involving a young man they had grown to care for.

I know ***** and Crennel are not popular figures in Kansas City these days because of the team’s 1-10 season. There is a strong chance Chiefs ownership makes wholesale changes in a month.

What happens professionally will take its course.

I expect Kansas City fans to loudly support their hurting team Sunday when the Chiefs host Carolina at Arrowhead Stadium. It should go without saying that I hope there are no airplane flyovers imploring for people to be fired, no fan “blackouts” at the game. The voice of the understandably angry Chiefs fan has been heard and it has been noted.

Sunday will be about beginning the healing process and honoring those left behind from this senseless crime. Be a Chiefs fan Sunday. At the core, that’s what you are.

I know some people don’t understand why or how the game can be played. But the Chiefs’ coaches and team captains reportedly played a major role in the decision to go ahead with it. If the Chiefs want to play, I think we can all support that choice.

I’ve been asked a lot Saturday about what Belcher was like. I didn’t know him. I never met him or interviewed him. I knew he was an overachieving player who ended up starting 44 career games after going undrafted.

I know his agent, Joe Linta, very well. He has a well-deserved reputation for representing solid-citizen types. He had always spoken highly of Belcher to me. Linta expressed disbelief Saturday.

Disbelief. That’s all you can feel when something so unspeakable happens.

http://espn.go.com/blog/afcwest

[Marcellus the True]

Originally Posted by jAZ

Sorry, but that makes no sense.

Not really. All he is saying it has nothing to do with football and I agree 100%.

Belcher could have been a librarian or factory worker. It gets coverage because he was an NFL player.

[feldspar]

Originally Posted by Brock

Well, I'm glad we've settled what the definition of cold blooded murder is AS FAR AS YOU'RE CONCERNED. However, the rest of the world has a slightly different interpretation of it. Cold blooded murder is exactly what it sounds like. It's planned, it's prepared, it's committed in a fashion designed to evade being caught. this wasn't that.

I said I wasn't going to argue semantics, but look up "cold blooded" in the dictionary. It doesn't say anything about "planned, prepared, and committed in a fashion designed to evade getting caught." I think you are referring to first-degree murder, and again, I'm not talking about the law.

He killed the mother of his infant child in front of his own mother, dude. I'd say that takes a bit of the old "cold blood." Look it up. The reason why cannot have been a good one, let alone justified. I don't care what set him off. Then he killed himself in front of his bosses without regard of how that might affect them

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

He's a guy I've rooted for for a long time. And yeah, I recognize that it's macabre as hell. But we watched this kid come into the league as a raw ball of fire and nerves that had been legally able to drink for mere months. By yesterday, he was a 3rd year starting linebacker with a new baby and his big FA break on the way. As a guy that sits in those stands every weekend, there is a feeling of 'growing' with these guys.

But if you can't understand the cognitive dissonance here and how someone would want to mitigate or undercut that, well so be it.

Sure, I understand. You have a bias...but that bias was based on a football game, dude. I think it's time to realize that you never knew the man, and he obviously was not the person you imagined him to be.

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

There's nothing that makes anything about this good. But if the guy flat freaked the !@#$ out in a manner that hundreds of years of recorded history has suggested is simply not that uncommon...well it makes it suck just a little bit less.

PS - Screen name smack is about the dumbest thing in the history of the internet, but hey, you really burned me on that one...

Whatever makes you feel better. Bad is still bad, and two wrongs do not make a right. Does not matter who else did what in the entire history of the universe, including the fifth dimension.

Good luck with your quest to find ANYTHING that could downplay the fact that he murdered a 22-year-old woman. Can you even invent a scenario where you can defend his character? I hear you are a lawyer, so should be able to bullshit pretty well. I hope you guys don't actually fool yourselves with some of the angles you take out there, though.

Make no mistake: what he did TOTALLY sucks, and could hardly suck any less apart from a larger death count.

Originally Posted by wazu

To be honest, the death of the linebacker is not the sad part, here. If Belcher had turned himself into the police, does that make any of this better?

I actually think the fact that he killed himself somehow has him being seen in a sympathetic light by some. Definitely by his teammates if you read their twitter accounts.

Exactly.

...yeah, the poor guy is dead, so now we should feel sympathy for him. Poor guy must have been sick or mentally ill...that comes next without a doubt.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by whaler53

Hey guys,

Pats fan here...


I just wanted to pop in to give my heart felt condolences to the Chiefs fans on this site. It is an absolute tragedy that happened, I my heart breaks for all of you, but most importantly to the victim's family as well as the family of the shooter.

Again, I'm so very sorry to hear about this senseless tragedy.

Rep...

[stonedstooge]

Originally Posted by KC Tattoo

That commercial changed the world. Thanks for the memory

[Brock]

Originally Posted by feldspar

I said I wasn't going to argue semantics, but look up "cold blooded" in the dictionary. It doesn't say anything about "planned, prepared, and committed in a fashion designed to evade getting caught." I think you are referring to first-degree murder, and again, I'm not talking about the law.

He killed the mother of his infant child in front of his own mother, dude. I'd say that takes a bit of the old "cold blood." Look it up. The reason why cannot have been a good one, let alone justified. I don't care what set him off. Then he killed himself in front of his bosses without regard of how that might affect them

And it's your contention that he murdered the mother of his child in front of his own mother in "cold-blood"? Per the dictionary definition, "Lacking feeling or emotion: a cold-blooded killer. Executed without feeling or emotion"? Something tells me you don't have a very good read on this situation.

Words mean things, I suggest you learn the meaning of them before lecturing anyone about what they mean AS FAR AS YOU'RE CONCERNED.