A Florida mother is being remembered as a hero after authorities say she was shot while trying to protect her children during a violent argument that began over an NFL game.
Jason Kenney, 47, is accused of shooting and killing his wife, Crystal Roure, 38, before taking his own life three days before Christmas, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators said Kenney had been drinking while watching Monday Night Football in a shed at the family’s Highland City home. Around 11 p.m. on Dec. 22, 2025, he came inside to watch the end of the game, authorities said. A confrontation followed after Roure told him she didn’t want to watch football, police said.
As the argument escalated, Roure shouted for her 12-year-old son to run to a nearby neighbor’s home and call 911. The boy later told investigators he heard a single gunshot as he fled.
Deputies who responded found Roure dead in the living room from a gunshot wound to the head. Her 13-year-old daughter was found in her bed with two gunshot wounds, while the couple’s 1-year-old child was asleep in her crib and unharmed, authorities said.
Sheriff Grady Judd said at a news conference that the teen survived after a bullet struck her nose and ricocheted through the top of her head.
“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 the teen stepdaughter.
Authorities also said they found an undated letter Roure wrote to Kenney, stating: “You’re drinking, you’re using cocaine again. This is not the way a family should be. You need God.”
After the shootings, investigators say Kenney drove away in his truck and called his sister, telling her he had “done something really bad” and “was not going to jail.” Authorities said he told her she would “see it on the news,” then drove to his deceased father’s home in Lake Wales and went into a shed on the property.
When officers arrived and ordered Kenney to come outside, they heard a gunshot, authorities said. They later found him dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot 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 also said relatives told investigators Kenney had been abusing Roure “for a while,” although the sheriff’s office had no prior records of domestic violence calls involving the couple. Kenney also had no criminal history, Judd said.
“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.”
