Mom killed shielding kids after husband erupts in rage over NFL game: police

A Florida mom is being remembered as a hero after she was shot protecting her children when her husband flew into a violent rage over an evening NFL game. 

Jason Kenney, 47, shot and killed his wife, Crystal Roure, 38, before turning the gun on himself just three days before Christmas, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. 

Kenney had been drinking while watching Monday Night Football inside his shed – located at the family’s Highland City home – when he came inside to watch the end of the game at around 11 p.m. on Dec. 22, 2025, authorities said. 

Upon entering the home, a fight ensued between the couple after Roure said she did not want to watch football, according to police.

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As the altercation escalated, Roure yelled for her 12-year-old son to run to a nearby neighbor’s house and call 911, and he heard a single gunshot as he was fleeing the home. 

Responding deputies subsequently found Roure dead in the family’s living room with a gunshot wound to her head, and her 13-year-old daughter suffering from two gunshot wounds while in her bed. The couple’s 1-year-old child was also found asleep in her crib, unharmed. 

The teen survived the shooting after the bullet struck her nose and ricocheted through the top of her head, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a news conference.

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"She said, ‘I begged him, don't shoot me, don't shoot me, don't shoot me. And he shot me anyway,’" Judd said, referring to Kenney’s teen stepdaughter.

Authorities also discovered an undated letter Roure wrote to Kenney, telling him: "You’re drinking, you’re using cocaine again. This is not the way a family should be. You need God." 

Immediately following the shooting of his wife and stepdaughter, police say Kenney fled the area in his truck and called his sister to tell her he "had done something really bad and he was not going to jail." Kenney reportedly added that she would "see it on the news," before driving to his deceased father’s home in Lake Wales and entering a shed on the property.

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When officers arrived and began yelling for Kenney to come outside, they heard a single gunshot and ultimately found him deceased from an apparent self-inflicted wound to the head. 

"He absolutely destroyed a family," Judd said. "When you go in there, there is a beautiful Christmas tree with lots of Christmas presents under the tree, just like the nuclear family should be, and it ends up this way."

Judd revealed that relatives of the family told investigators that Kenney had been abusing his wife "for a while," despite the sheriff’s office having no records of any domestic violence calls regarding the couple. Additionally, Kenney had no criminal history, Judd added.

The Polk County Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. 

"After they were married, I know she said he was drinking a lot more but she said that he was going to stop and said he would get help with it. Obviously that didn't happen," Roure’s sister, Stephanie Roure, told USA Today. 

"My sister died a hero for protecting her children and getting my nephew out of the house to make the 911 call," Stephanie Roure reportedly said. "She did that. She saved their lives and by doing so my nephew saved his sister's life, and thank God the baby was untouched."