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Background

Jovan Henry Allen Belcher was born in West Babylon, New York, on July 24th, 1987.

He dominated on the football field at Babylon High School before making his way West to play for the University of Maine for four years.

As a junior, Belcher was an all-American and caught the eye of NFL scouts. He was expected to be selected in the sixth round of the 2009 NFL Draft.

Concerns about his size led to him going undrafted. He signed a free-agent contract with the Kansas City Chief in 2009. He played in every game as a rookie while starting three of them. He registered 33 tackles and was considered one of the best-undrafted rookies that season.

He became a starter in the next two seasons and continued to impress. In March 2012, he signed a life-changing $1.9 million contract with the Chiefs.

At just 25 years old, he looked like he had a promising future, but by November, his life took a dark turn.

Murder of Kasandra Perkins

In the fall of 2012, Belcher lived with his girlfriend of three years, Kasandra Perkins, and their three-month-old daughter, Zoey. The two had a tumultuous relationship, and a friend later said they argued a lot.

On the night of Thursday, November 29th, 2012, Perkins went out to the Power & Light District, a popular entertainment and nightlife area in Kansas City. She went to a Trey Songz concert and had drinks with a few friends.

During the evening, Belcher had a text exchange with a college teammate in which he called Perkins “crazy”. He also said he had 8 guns for when he has to deal with his daughter’s “little bf’s” in the future.

When Perkins came home at about 1 am Friday, November 2012, she and Belcher argued about her being out late.

Later, Belcher ended up in the Power & Light District with his girlfriend, Brittni. They lost track of each other at some point, so Belcher drove to her home.

Since she wasn’t there and he forgot the code for her building, he slept outside in his car with his headlights on. Neighbors were suspicious about his presence and contacted authorities at 2:47 am.

20 Minutes later, authorities arrived and made contact with Belcher. They felt Belcher may have had a few drinks, but they didn’t think he was intoxicated or slurring his words.

They wanted him to leave or go inside the building. At 3:19 am, someone came outside to smoke and recognized Belcher because they had seen him visit Brittni on multiple occasions, so they allowed him into the building.

Belcher slept on a woman’s couch, and she woke him up at 6:30 am because he told her he had a team meeting.

He drove back to the home he shared with Perkins and arrived around 7 am. The couple argued loudly, but it’s unclear what the argument was about. Belcher’s mother, Cheryl Shepard, heard her son yell, “You can’t talk to me like that!” followed by gunshots.

Belcher shot Perkins nine times. His mother entered the room to find Belcher kneeling over Perkins, apologizing.

He left the home and drove to the Chief’s practice facility. Meanwhile, Perkins was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead.

Suicide

Once at the facility, Belcher encountered Chief’s general manager at the time, Scott Pioli. Belcher pointed a gun at his own head and said, “I killed her.”

Belcher told Pioli he wanted to speak to the head coach at the time, Romeo Crennel, and linebackers coach at the time, Cary Gibbs. The men came outside and tried to calm Belcher down and get him to drop the gun, but his mind was made up.

When he heard sirens, he knelt, made a cross sign, and then shot himself.

He was pronounced dead at the hospital 40 minutes later.

After his death, his blood alcohol level was determined to be .17.

According to ESPN, his body was exhumed a year after his death so that his brain could be examined. It was determined he had signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE.

After a legal battle between Belcher’s mother and Perkins’s family, Perkins’s cousin was awarded custody of Zoey.