LAKELAND, Fla. — A deadly argument over a television channel left two people dead and a 13-year-old girl critically injured in Lakeland on Monday night, Sheriff Grady Judd reported.
Authorities said the incident began when Crystal Kenney suggested changing the channel while watching the end of a football game with her husband, Jason Kenney. The conversation quickly escalated into a violent dispute. Fearing for her life, Crystal asked her 12-year-old son to call 911. The boy fled to a neighbor’s home, hearing a gunshot as he left.
When deputies arrived minutes later, they found Crystal Kenney dead from a gunshot wound to the head inside their home. In a bedroom, her 13-year-old daughter was discovered with two gunshot wounds—one to the shoulder and another that entered her nose and exited the top of her head. Sheriff Judd described the injuries as life-threatening, but miraculously, the girl was awake, alert, and able to speak with police. She told deputies she begged her stepfather not to shoot her, but he fired anyway.
Also present in the home was Jason Kenney’s 1-year-old biological child, who was unharmed.
Following the shootings, Jason Kenney fled the scene, calling his sister to say he had “done something bad” and did not intend to spend the rest of his life in jail. He traveled to his deceased father’s home in Lake Wales, where deputies later located him in a shed. Authorities reported a single gunshot from the shed, finding Jason dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the forehead.
Sheriff Judd said, “He just absolutely destroyed a family. Literally. Not to mention the mental health of two children without their mother and a father three days before Christmas… The only thing he did right that night was shoot himself.”
The children are currently in the care of their grandparents. The 12- and 13-year-old children’s father lives in California and has had no contact with them. The 1-year-old is now without a parent due to the tragedy.
Authorities continue to investigate the case, which has left the community shocked and grieving just days before Christmas.
