Police interviews conducted with Cheryl Shepherd, the mother of Kansas City linebacker Jovan Belcher, reveal that Belcher argued with his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, about their daughter’s paternity before shooting her multiple times then turning the gun on himself.
“The mother believed that there was an issue over whether [Belcher] was the father,” said a source told The NY Post. “She said he [believed he] wasn’t necessarily the father of the child.”
“The implication was that [paternity] was what the two of them were fighting about — that the baby might not have been his,” a source told The NY Post.
A NY Post reporter who reached out to Shepherd was told there would be “no comment” on the paternity issue.
Under the surviving-child benefit of the NFL’s collective-bargaining agreement, the couple’s surviving daughter Zoey could receive more than $1 million.
NFL players-union spokesman George Atallah did not respond to several calls or e-mails from the NY Post asking whether the baby’s paternity would be an issue in the payout.
According to The NY Post, Zoey stands to receive “$108,000 annually over the next four years, $48,000 in the fifth year and then $52,000 each year until she’s 18 — or 23, if she attends college.”
Belcher’s beneficiary will also receive up to $1.5 million in life insurance and other benefits from the NFL.
Belcher’s mom has temporary custody of the baby, but Perkins’ family brought Zoey to a Texas memorial for Perkins last week.
“We will raise Baby Zoey in the knowledge of the love from which she was born,” Perkins’ family said in a statement.
The statement added that the “loyal, honest and trusting” Perkins “was dedicated to starting her new family and beyond excited about being a mother to her sweet baby.”
Belcher was not mentioned at the service.
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