A 13-year-old Florida girl who survived being shot in the face by her stepfather is speaking publicly for the first time, describing the moments that led to the deadly attack.
In a new interview with Inside Edition, the teen—who asked not to be named or shown—said the violence erupted on Dec. 22 after an argument between her mother, Crystal Kenney, and her stepfather, Jason Kenney, over what to watch on television.
“She wouldn’t change the channel to football because she wanted to watch another episode of Percy Jackson,” the girl recalled.
According to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, Jason had been watching his favorite team, the San Francisco 49ers, in a shed before coming inside to catch the final quarter of Monday Night Football. The disagreement quickly escalated.
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As tensions rose, Crystal told her 12-year-old son to run to a neighbor’s house to call for help, Judd said. Her daughter stayed behind and witnessed Jason shoot and kill her mother.
Moments later, the gunman turned the weapon on her.
“I begged him, ‘Don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me,’” she told Inside Edition. He fired anyway, striking her in the shoulder and then the face.
Against all odds, she survived.
Investigators later determined that the bullet entered at the bridge of her nose, traveled upward, and exited through the top of her head. “That’s a Christmas miracle,” Judd said.
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The girl’s brother was not injured, nor was the couple’s infant child, who was in the same bedroom at the time.
After the shooting, Jason Kenney fled to his late father’s home, barricaded himself inside a shed, and later took his own life as deputies closed in, Judd said. While on the run, he reportedly called his sister and 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 now recovering, and all three children are in the care of their maternal grandmother. A GoFundMe has been set up to help support them.
