Florida Mom Killed by Husband in ‘Monday Night Football’ Murder-Suicide ‘Died While Protecting Her Children’: Sister

A Florida woman killed in a murder-suicide just days before Christmas is being remembered by her family as someone who gave everything to protect her three children.

Crystal Kenney, 38, was fatally shot by her husband, Jason Kenney, shortly before midnight after an argument that began over Monday Night Football.

According to Crystal’s daughter, Jason had been watching the game in a shed and later came inside, insisting Crystal turn off what she was watching so he could watch the San Francisco 49ers. The disagreement quickly escalated, and authorities say Jason shot Crystal and her 13-year-old daughter before fleeing to his late father’s home, where he later died by suicide.

“My sister died a hero for protecting her children and getting my nephew out of the house to make the 911 call,” Crystal’s sister, Stephanie Roure, told USA Today. “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.”

Crystal’s daughter said her mother had been watching Percy Jackson when Jason returned to the house to watch the fourth quarter of the game. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the couple then began fighting.

“She wouldn’t change the channel to football because she wanted to watch another episode of Percy Jackson,” the daughter said.

At some point, Judd said, Crystal told her 12-year-old son to run next door and call for help. Her 13-year-old daughter remained inside — and said she witnessed Jason shoot and kill her mother.

The teen later said she pleaded for her life as Jason aimed the gun at her.

“I begged him, ‘Don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me,’” she said, describing the moments before she was shot in the shoulder and then the face.

She survived.

“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,” Judd said, calling it “a Christmas miracle.”

The 12-year-old boy was unharmed because he had already left the house. Crystal and Jason’s infant child, who was in the same bedroom as the 13-year-old, was also not injured.

After the shooting, authorities say Jason left the home before police arrived, driving to his late father’s house. Judd said he barricaded himself in a shed, and as officers closed in, he died by suicide.

“He absolutely destroyed a family,” Judd said.

Judd also said that during Jason’s final phone call with his sister, he told her he had done “something very, very bad,” adding that “the next time you see me will be on the news.”

The 13-year-old is recovering, and all three children are now in the care of their maternal grandmother. A GoFundMe has been created to help raise money for the children.

“Her children were her world. She worked hard for them, to provide for them. She protected them,” Roure told USA Today. “They came first before anything.”