KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The woman killed Saturday by Chiefs linebacker and former UMaine player Jovan Belcher argued in the early morning hours after the woman was out late attending a Friday Trey Songz concert, according to The Kansas City Star.
The friend, who asked not to be identified, said Belcher confronted his live-in girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, when she returned home about 1 a.m.
The couple had dated about three years and argued frequently, the friend said, but she wasn’t aware of any prior physical abuse.
As news spread that Belcher had killed Perkins and then himself, several friends of the victim gathered outside the couple’s home in the 5400 block of Crysler Avenue in Kansas City.
Another friend, Jennifer Ashley, said Perkins was a student at Blue River Community College in Independence and wanted to be a school teacher. She said the victim had started dating Belcher after being introduced to him by the girlfriend of another Chiefs player.
Belcher attended the University of Maine, where he played football from 2005-2008 and was a first-team All-American as a senior before he graduated in 2009.
Police Capt. David Lindaman said Belcher, 25, and his girlfriend, 22, got into an argument around 7 a.m. CST at their home in the 5400 block of Crysler Avenue in Kansas City. Around 7:50 a.m., Lindaman said, Belcher shot his girlfriend multiple times. She was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Lindaman said Belcher’s mother, who was visiting the couple and their 3-month-old daughter, witnessed the shooting and was being interviewed by police.
Belcher left the scene on Crysler and went to the Chiefs’ practice facility at Arrowhead, police said.
Police were called to the stadium around 8:10 a.m. When Belcher arrived there, he encountered General Manager Scott Pioli, Coach Romeo Crennel and other team personnel. Police said Chiefs staff attempted to keep Belcher from committing additional acts of violence.
“As officers pulled up and were getting ready to get out of their car, they heard a gunshot,” Kansas City police spokesman Darin Snapp said.
Snapp said Belcher shot himself in the head in front of Crennel and Pioli.
“He was not threatening the employees at all,” Snapp said. “He was just talking to them and thanking them for everything they had done for him.”
“We can confirm that there was an incident at Arrowhead earlier this morning,” the Chiefs said in a statement. “We are cooperating with authorities in their investigation.”
UMaine athletics on Saturday afternoon issued the following statement by Cosgrove:
“His [Belcher’s] move to the NFL was in keeping with his dreams,” says Cosgrove. “This is an indescribably horrible tragedy. At this difficult time, our thoughts and prayers are with Jovan, Kasandra and their families.”
The Kansas City Chiefs host the Carolina Panthers on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium. The Charlotte Observer reported that the NFL informed the Panthers to leave on their team charter plane as scheduled Saturday.
Earlier this year, Belcher signed a one-year deal worth just under $2 million. He had started 10 of 11 games at inside linebacker for the Chiefs this season and was in his third season as a full-time starter, fourth overall in the NFL. A 6-foot-2-inch, 228-pound outside linebacker, he had been in on 38 tackles this season.
During his four-year career, Belcher participated in 59 games, starting 44. He logged 257 career tackles and forced one fumble.
Belcher was a star player at UMaine, where he was honored as the Colonial Athletic Association Defensive Player of the Year in 2008. He helped coach Jack Cosgrove’s Black Bears earn a spot in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
As a senior, he was the runner-up for the Buck Buchanan Award presented to the best defensive player at the FCS level. He made 98 tackles, including 7½ sacks, in 2008.
Belcher, who earned a degree in child development and family relations, participated in the Male Athletes Against Violence initiative during his time at UMaine. He also mentored a local boy by doing different activities with him as part of his curriculum.
Friends, former teammates, family members, acquaintances and fans quickly began flooding Belcher’s Facebook page with messages of condolence upon learning of the tragedy on Saturday morning.
“Hard to believe, Jovan Belcher was as good a man as any,” posted former UMaine teammate Jacob Folz.
“I’m at a loss for words … lost a brother today and successor to the #9 tradition at Maine in Jovan Belcher … my thoughts are prayers are with both families involved,” was the post of former Black Bears defensive end and current UMaine strength and conditioning coach Matt King.
Judging from his final Facebook post, which came on Thursday, Belcher appeared to be in good spirits less than 48 hours before the apparent murder-suicide.
“Momma always said, Boy count ya Blessings!!” the post read.
According to a Bangor Daily News profile in 2008, Belcher’s senior year at UMaine, he was a student-athlete who was tenacious on the field but soft-spoken off it.
“He has a special ability to really jump into another gear and turn himself into a bit of a different being,” UMaine football coach Jack Cosgrove said of Belcher’s on-field personality at the time. “He plays with such passion and reckless abandon.”
The Sports Xchange, Kansas City Star writers Glenn Rice and Kevin Collison, and Bangor Daily News writer Pete Warner contributed to this report.
before the accolades start pouring in for this guy, just remember…..he killed a woman.
I agree completely.
Exactly…………just another overpaid dirtbag!
No just a dirtbag…. money had nothing to do with this.
I stand corrected!
I remember a quote from somewhere 30 odd years ago about football players: They’re all over paid, under educated bimbos! :)
Interesting that you’re putting a whole segment of people into a bubble because of the actions of one. There have been many professional football players that graduated from schools like Harvard, Stanford, the Military Academies, ect that have led solid professional lives both on and off the field. There have also been many college players that didn’t make in to the pro’s but used their athletic abilities to help them get into solid schools in the first place. No matter what profession you have meat heads and jerks. This guy is/was a murder but to attach such things to the rest of the profession is ignorant.
I’ve put no one anywhere. I simply told Rocky an old stereotype quote. I thought it was a bit humorous, as all jokes (PC or not) have some recognizable truth or they would’t work.
During the 40′ to 70’s time period, there was a plethora of movies that involved the stereotypical football player found by a scout in high school, given a full scholarship complete with the free cars and a pile of money to catch all the pretty ones. All they had to do was give the school a good job and keep the alumni donations coming in. Skipping classes was expected.
Stereotypes do have some foundation in facts.
My son is a football player, and is very intelligent. Your generalization is guilty of having no merit .
More liberal media. Athletics and sport build character….That’s my teachers in school taught me…They wouldn’t lie would they?
Athletics and sports build egos. Egos easily get out of control because they get warped by the culture, ie OJ Simpson and others.
Athletics and sports do build character you just don’t hear about all the athletes who do good in the community. Those athletes way out number the bad.
There was a study done that showed professional athletes commit crimes at a significantly lower level than the general public do but you don;t hear about that.
I think you are 100% wrong about the overall impact of big (and small) athletics on character…. how often do you hear about the big man on campus being a computer whiz? Althetics teach a few that they are better than everyone else… there is nothing good about that kind of character.
Even little leaguers who are on winning teams are insufferable jerks to the other kids.
Oh yeah…..teachers are always so in support of athletics…..NOT!
What does the mythical “liberal” media have to do with this story?
Does the story dwell too much on this guy’s football stats and his connection to Maine? Yes, in a somewhat weak attempt to add meat to the story. But how does this tie in to a “liberal” media when this story has nothing to do with politics?
Agreed. What the heck does that have to do with this tragedy?
Disagreed, It has everything to do with the way this was reported.
This man killed his girlfriend in front of her mother and then shot himself in front of two other people, leaving a 3 month old daughter without parents and forever traumatizing the witnesses. Why is over a quarter of the article dedicated to how great he was?
He is a murderer. Why is he being portrayed as such a great athlete, anyone else go did this would be shown in a much different light
I watched WABI TV 5 praise the guy for 5 minuets on the 11 o clock news. My blood was boiling, how stupid do they think we are? I hope it has nothing to do with his race.
What in h*ll is that comment supposed to mean? You are apparently more stupid than you think.
You are not a kind person. People who call other people stupid and ignorant should take a long look in the mirror.
Your post added nothing of value.
It was in front of HIS mother.
The confusion began with her 911 call saying it was her daughter (because she ‘treated her like a daughter’). It doesn’t matter because it’s an awful thing to witness either way…
EXACTLY! I’m so sick of the publicity he’s getting. How about a nice write up about Miss Perkins or the baby? Even if it was something like a head injury that caused him to have a personality change, how about we wait until the autopsy results?
Without being graphic… there is not likely much significant anatomy left for a definitive post mortem.
Yah, well you got me there. Wasn’t using my noodle–it was late. :)
it was HIS mother… not even hers…
My apologies. The article stated her mother when I wrote my post. Still traumatizing.
Where is the proof reader??? Read the first sentence of this article. It makes no sense, or at least it is very poorly constructed.
This is very sad news about this former Univ of Maine student and football player.
It is becoming more and more apparent that the paper is far more concerned these days with pushing stories out the door as quickly as possible with little regard for accuracy.
Ian Fleming (yes, the creator of James Bond) once said of his profession when he was a journalist: “In [our] profession, it will never be a greater sin to be slow than wrong, for if the truth should ever come second to efficiency, then the great trust you hold for us will have been broken.”
I see they have finally corrected it. There are now more and more ads and graphics all the time. “Similar articles” that aren’t similar but many times about some shallow topic like the Khardasians. And yet the quality of what one reads has deteriorated. Is too much attention put to graphics and videos at the expense of the other?! I would say, yes.
isn’t proofreader one word?
I think you are probably correct. I was thinking it could be spelled both ways. However, I am not an editor nor proofreader by profession. These people get paid for doing that job.
he murdered someone and took away both the child’s mother and father. Unless there is some outside circumstances that caused this then guess what, he’s a murderer. Any questions?
No questions from me, and don’t forget the trauma on the womans mother.
It was his mother, not the girlfriend’s
A Trey Songz Concert, never heard of that, the sports, the whole sports thing from 5th grade in elementary to the big league are out of control, too, much, too much money, too much news coverage, some cannot take it, nor handle it.
Search thine own heart. What paineth thee
In others, in thyself may
be;
All dust is frail, all flesh is weak;
Be thou the true man thou dost
seek.
J. G. WHITTIER.
What ever happened to empathy? :( This is a tragedy for every one of us.
Jovan could have been your brother, neighbor, son or friend. What would you say then? I have seen the pain on his friends’ faces. We should ask ourselves, “Why?” so we may be able to prevent this from happening again and again and again.
Then feel bad for them and send prayers to them instead of a guy who had a million choices he could have made but instead decided to murder someone and then off himself as the cowardly way of not having to deal with the ramifications of his poor decision.
empathy for people you never met and would never have even read about? how about empathy for people whose lives you CAN touch?
never mind prayer… if you really feel for people in need, then you do not need to look to Kansas City millionaires and gold diggers.
take a drive to a poor part of town and work at a soup kitchen… ask a teacher which little kid in her class might need winter boots or a jacket
ask a small town cop which family does not even send their kids to school and see if you can feed them for a day or two.
Too many people want to feel good about them selves for sending prayer to victims and do not do anything locally.
The woman he murdered in cold blood could have been your sister, your daughter, your mother, a little 3 month old baby’s mother, your aunt, your niece, your neighbor, your friend etc, where’s your empathy for her and her family and friends?
Belcher, who earned a degree in child development and family relations,
participated in the Male Athletes Against Violence initiative during his
time at UMaine.Says a lot about the child development and family relations program at UMaine..What a tragedy
It is just a chump course with a feel good moniker so one has
time to concentrate on sports and still get a useless “degree”.
Did you really just blame UMaine for this tragedy, so to speak?
the guy was trash, just pure and simple trash
This is ridiculous
WABI TV 5 angered me last night. They went on a 5 min. praise bandwagon on the guy. I hope all the praise has nothing to do with his race.
You Gotta love the LIBERAL Media!!!!!!
Another backwoods racist.
Racism is overused as an excuse. It is also overused as an accusation.
point out the most recent murder suicide article about a White guy and show me the praise before you call names, huh?
Lookup Chris Benoit.
I, my friend am not racist. I have black friends, and relatives. I am just pointing out that if he were white I bet the story would have been completely the opposite. I would be willing to wager that I am more excepting of different ethnicity than you are. The only people I truly despise are Islamic radicals.
Actually it was his former coach at Univ of Maine and some of his teammates who were praising him. You have it wrong about the media.
I can understand now why people are seeing this man in a different, and now negative, light . However, his football coach and others were remembering the person they saw before, and some of the good he did. I guess people can be very complex and what we see on the surface is often not the whole story.
This whole story is rather disturbing. From the actual acts committed to the reporting which seems to be going way outside the lines to paint the individual in a good light. Until the facts are in I’m going to withhold judgement though. What I mean by that, is I want to know if they find any sort of brain injury during the autopsy or if this man just went off over a simple argument. I may get blasted for that by some but TBI is being found to be such a serious issue I don’t feel as though I can judge everything before all the evidence is in. What I do know, is that there is now a child without parents and to me there is not much else sadder. God Bless the little one as she grows up and has to live with this from here forward.
Without being graphic … there probably isn’t much cranial material left for a definitive post mortem exam.
Good point. I hadn’t even thought of that earlier. I would hope in a case like this there was some factor that caused it but as we see everyday, it very well could have been completely senseless as well.
Face it amateur analysts and other know-it-alls out there in cyberland: we know very little about this situation, no matter what is coughed up by friends, former coaches, and others who are shocked and baffled. It is interesting that in their surprise, none mention the possibility of something coaches and players would rather not consider. The only one I’ve noticed to do it is Tim Dahlberg of AP, who in writing about this tragedy, has brought up the fact that due to head injury, Belcher had lost once been on the team’s disabled list. In that vein, one thing is obvious to anyone who watches the weekly beatings pro-footballers (particularly linebackers and pass defenders) visit on one another, that repeated brain trauma is common in what passes for sport in the NFL (college and high school levels, too), as research at Boston University clearly shows. What or whether it played part in Belcher’s gun violence is not for me to even suggest, but it will be interesting to see whether brain damage had any role at all in it. Keep your minds open on this one, all you fans of football! Having one’s “bell rung” repeatedly (which often brings a “wow, boyoboy did you see that?”) from the galleries, can and often does catch up with the victim in one sad way or another.
I can see it now…”The defendant pleads not guilty by reason of Football”. Your post is a cop out. If he was so brain damaged that he didn’t know it was wrong to kill someone then he wouldn’t have been able to function day to day and take care of himself. He’d be a vegetable. If he was brain damaged to the point he wanted to kill himself, that’s fine, but I don’t care what he’s done for a living he still knew it was wrong to kill someone else. Especially if he then had the clarity of mind to drive to see his coaches and GM and thank them for everything they had done for him but he had done something so awful that he couldn’t take back and he had to end it all. Sorry he wasn’t that brain damaged. Just another thug who managed to control himself when he had the whole world bowing at his feet, but couldn’t handle things at home when people didn’t treat him like he was the king.
This guy is no hero…He is a cold-bloded killer and he doesn’t deserve to be held up as one…
This article doesn’t make much sense. They begin with that they got in an argument at 1am after a concert and don’t elaborate any further. Then they state a few paragraphs later that an argument took place at 7am. So what happened between 1 and 7?