The football player, on the run from the police, armed with a handgun. A pursuit which ends in suicide and leaves the world of sports reeling.
The shocking death of Dallas Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland shocked the NFL on Thursday morning and left more questions than answers about why the 24-year-old would choose to take his own life.
“It is with extreme sadness that the Dallas Cowboys share that Marshawn Kneeland tragically passed away this morning,” the Cowboys said in a statement released on November 6. “Marshawn was a beloved teammate and member of our organization. Our thoughts and prayers regarding Marshawn are with his girlfriend Catalina and his family.”
Kneeland’s death evoked memories of an incident with the Kansas City Chiefs from 2012, when one of their players took his own life in similar fashion.
Chiefs Dealt With Unspeakable Tragedy in 2012
On the morning of December 1, 2012, fourth year Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher returned home shortly after dawn and began to argue with his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, who he shared the home with, as well as their 3-month-old daughter and Belcher’s mother.
After a short argument, Belcher shot and killed Perkins, 22 years old, in front of his mother and fled the home. He drove 5 miles to the Chiefs practice facility, where he encountered general manager Scott Pioli and head coach Romeo Crennel as police began to surround the facility.
After confessing his crimes and asking them to take care of his daughter, Belcher knelt on the ground, made the sign of the cross and shot himself in the head with a handgun, taking his own life. He was 25 years old.
Tests on Belcher’s brain later revealed he was dealing with advanced CTE.
“The brain of former Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher — the 25-year-old player who shot and killed his girlfriend in 2012 before committing suicide — showed signs of pervasive brain damage like that found in other deceased NFL players, according to a neuropathologist,” ESPN’s Steve Delsohn wrote in September 2014. “In a report obtained by ‘Outside the Lines,’ Dr. Piotr Kozlowski writes that he detected neurofibrillary tangles of tau protein, which is identified with chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The tangles were distributed throughout Belcher’s hippocampus, an area of the brain involved with memory, learning and emotion.”
Audio Reveals Frantic, Harrowing Pursuit
Kneeland, like Belcher, went to his team’s practice facility before his suicide, with Kneeland crashing his vehicle around The Star in Frisco, Texas, around 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday evening before exiting his vehicle and leaving on foot.
Police audio revealed a 3-hour search for Kneeland that involved multiple law enforcement agencies, with both the Cowboys and NFL reaching out in that time, with Kneeland’s body ultimately found by police drones in a portable restroom shortly after 1:30 a.m.
Unlike the Chiefs, who had to play a game the next day against the Carolina Panthers, the Cowboys will have some time to process the tragedy before trying to play another game. Dallas is on a bye this week and won’t return to action until a Week 11 Monday Night Football road game against the Las Vegas Raiders on November 17.
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