Florida Man Kills Wife, Shoots Stepdaughter in Murder-Suicide Over TV Argument Days Before Christmas

Tragedy occurred in Florida just days before Christmas after an argument over what to watch on television became deadly.

On Monday, December 22, authorities received a call from a woman in Lakeland just before 11 p.m. explaining that her 12-year-old neighbor ran over and asked her to dial 911, according to a press release from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

Jason Kenney, 47, had been watching football and was drinking before shooting his wife, Crystal Kenney, and 13-year-old stepdaughter, sheriff Grady Judd said during a press conference held the following day.

“Sometime toward the end of the game at around 11, an argument began when Crystal suggested they watch something else on television,” sheriff Judd said. “And the argument got really heated.”

When deputies arrived at the home, they found Crystal dead in the living room with a gunshot wound to her head, the PCSO release said. Crystal’s daughter was found in her bedroom with two gunshot wounds. The couple’s 1-year-old girl was in her crib, unharmed.

The teenage girl was “shot in the shoulder, and she’s shot in the face,” sheriff Judd said during the press conference. “We later learned the bullet in the face hit her on the bridge of the nose, went straight up and out the top of her head. She is alive in critical condition, but stable, at Lakeland Regional Health and is alert and talking.”

“That’s a Christmas miracle,” he added. “Jason shot her twice and intended to kill her.”

After the shooting, the PCSO said that Jason fled the scene and called his sister to tell her that he’d done something bad but that he was not going to jail. He told her she would “see it on the news,” the PCSO said.

Jason drove to his deceased father’s home, and when deputies arrived, they heard a single gunshot. They found Jason dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Crystal’s 12-year-old son was not shot during the incident, the sheriff said. The three children are currently with grandparents.

“This is horrific, but destroying a family and the mental health of these children so close to Christmas is especially horrific,” sheriff Judd said in a statement. “We will do everything we can to help this family get through this difficult time.”