Story highlights Police: Jovan Belcher fatally shot his girlfriend, with their baby daughter in another room 
 
 He then shot himself in front of coaches as officers pull up, police say 
 
 Authorities release 911 tapes of the day of the shooting 
 
 Inside the Kansas City home that Jovan Belcher fled, his baby daughter wailed, his mother was in hysterics and his girlfriend was quiet. Barely breathing. 
 
 This is what the NFL linebacker left behind on Saturday in a rush of violence that left many wondering why. 
 
 Few answers came from 911 tapes released this week by police. But the tapes provide a heartbreaking soundtrack of the fleeting moments the morning that police say Belcher killed his girlfriend Kassandra Perkins and then later turned the gun on himself just outside the front door of the Chiefs' practice facility. 
 
 "Oh my God. Oh my God. Kasi," Belcher's mother, Cheryl Shepherd, bawled. "The baby is crying ... Please get the ambulance here!" 
 
 "OK, we're on the way," the dispatcher said. "We've been on the way the whole time. How old is the patient?" 
 
 "Twenty-two," the mother said. 
 
 Photos: Photos: Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs Photos: Photos: Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs 'One of everyone's favorite teammates' – Jovan Belcher had advanced from an undrafted free agent linebacker to NFL starter for the Kansas City Chiefs and played in every game since 2009. On Saturday, December 1, 2012, the 25-year-old star allegedly killed his girlfriend, then drove to the Chiefs' practice facility and took his own life. After the tragedy, teammate Tony Moeaki tweeted, "One of everyone's favorite teammates including one of mine." Here's a look at his career with the Chiefs and tragic end: Hide Caption 1 of 16 Photos: Photos: Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs 'One of everyone's favorite teammates' – The Kansas City Chiefs kneel and pray before a game against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, December 2, 2012 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. Hide Caption 2 of 16 Photos: Photos: Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs 'One of everyone's favorite teammates' – Natalie Samson wears the No. 59 jersey, which was Jovan Belcher's number, as she stands for a moment of silence. Hide Caption 3 of 16 Photos: Photos: Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs 'One of everyone's favorite teammates' – Players from the Kansas City Chiefs and Carolina Panthers gather at midfield for a prayer after the Chiefs' 27-21 win. Hide Caption 4 of 16 Photos: Photos: Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs 'One of everyone's favorite teammates' – A young fan holds a condolences sign for the Kansas City Chiefs prior to the team's game against the Carolina Panthers. Hide Caption 5 of 16 Photos: Photos: Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs 'One of everyone's favorite teammates' – Before their game against the Carolina Pathers, the Kansas City Chiefs pause for a moment of silence. Hide Caption 6 of 16 Photos: Photos: Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs 'One of everyone's favorite teammates' – After Belcher and his girlfriend's deaths, flags wave in the wind outside of The University of Kansas Hospital Training Complex used by the Kansas City Chiefs next to Arrowhead Stadium, on Saturday, December 1, 2012. Hide Caption 7 of 16 Photos: Photos: Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs 'One of everyone's favorite teammates' – No. 59 Belcher battles guard Clint Boling of the Cincinnati Bengals during the game at Arrowhead Stadium on November 18, 2012 in Kansas City. Hide Caption 8 of 16 Photos: Photos: Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs 'One of everyone's favorite teammates' – Belcher stretches before the game against the Oakland Raiders at Arrowhead Stadium on September 20, 2009, in Kansas City. Hide Caption 9 of 16 Photos: Photos: Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs 'One of everyone's favorite teammates' – The residence of Kasandra Perkins, Belcher's girlfriend, is seen on December 1, 2012, in Kansas City. Hide Caption 10 of 16 Photos: Photos: Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs 'One of everyone's favorite teammates' – Belcher during an NFL game against the Atlanta Falcons on September 9, 2012. Hide Caption 11 of 16 Photos: Photos: Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs 'One of everyone's favorite teammates' – Belcher brings down Buffalo Bills running back C.J. Spiller in the third quarter at Arrowhead Stadium on October 31, 2010. Hide Caption 12 of 16 Photos: Photos: Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs 'One of everyone's favorite teammates' – Belcher cools off from temperatures over 100 degrees during a training camp practice on the campus of Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri, on August 1, 2011. Hide Caption 13 of 16 Photos: Photos: Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs 'One of everyone's favorite teammates' – The linebacker after a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Heinz Field on November 12, 2012 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Steelers defeated the Chiefs 16-13. Hide Caption 14 of 16 Photos: Photos: Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs 'One of everyone's favorite teammates' – Belcher watches from the sidelines during his final game against the Denver Broncos at Arrowhead Stadium on November 25, 2012. Hide Caption 15 of 16 Photos: Photos: Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs 'One of everyone's favorite teammates' – Belcher in action during the game against the Cincinnati Bengals at on November 18, 2012, in Kansas City. Hide Caption 16 of 16 
 
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 "Is she breathing?" the dispatcher asked. 
 
 "She is still breathing but barely. Please hurry. I don't know how many times he shot her. They had been arguing ..." the mother said. 
 
 "OK, she's been shot?" the dispatcher asked. 
 
 Then moments later the mother seemed to direct her shouts to the wounded woman in the home. 
 
 "You hear me? Kassandra! Hey!. Stay with me!" 
 
 "Ma'am," the dispatcher said. "Listen. Is she awake?" 
 
 "She's barely," the mother said. "She's just barely. She is moving when I talk to her." 
 
 "OK," the dispatcher said. 
 
 "Oh, God," the mother moaned. 
 
 "Is she bleeding?" The dispatcher asked. 
 
 "Yes, she is ...." 
 
 But the rest of what's said was obscured by the screams of the young child. 
 
 A police officer gets on the phone and tries to get information about Belcher from the distraught mother. 
 
 Instead, in a voice rising as the moments passed, the mother begged for an ambulance. 
 
 "Ma'am, the ambulance is on the way. What's your son's name? What kind of car did your son leave in? Or was he on foot?" the officer said. 
 
 There was no response. 
 
 "Sounds like she disconnected," the dispatcher said. "I wanted to give her some bleeding advice also ... Ma'am, are you there?" 
 
 But there was no response. 
 
 And all that can be heard are the screams of the baby. 

 Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher is shown during an NFL game against the Atlanta Falcons. 
 
 Seconds after fatally shooting his longtime girlfriend, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher leaned over her in their master bathroom, said he was sorry and kissed her on the forehead. 
 
 His mother, who heard gunfire as she stood in the kitchen, rushed to her sons bedroom and watched his remorseful goodbye. 
 
 Belcher apologized to his mother, kissed his 3-month-old daughter and fled his rented home in the 5400 block of Crysler Avenue in his Bentley. 
 
 The Star learned those details and others from multiple police sources Monday as officers continued their investigation into why Belcher, 25, killed his live-in girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, 22, on Saturday morning. Arguments over relationship and financial issues had simmered for months between them, according to the sources. 
 
 Belchers mother, who came from New York to live with her son so the couple could work through their issues, didnt hear much of the argument. But just before 8 a.m., she heard her son say something to the effect of: You cant talk to me like that! 
 
 Then she heard gunfire. 
 
 Afterward, Belcher drove to the only place he felt safe  to his other family at Arrowhead Stadium, police said. 
 
 As he covered the five miles from his home to the stadium, his violent act weighed on him, police believe. 
 
 He probably realized he had done something and he couldnt go back, said Police Sgt. Richard Sharp. 
 
 In the parking lot of the practice facility at 1 Arrowhead Drive, Belcher encountered Chiefs General Manager Scott Pioli. Belcher stepped out of his Bentley with a gun pointed at his own head, police said. 
 
 I did it, he said, according to police. I killed her. 
 
 Club officials knew about the couples problems. The Chiefs had provided counseling and were bending over backward to help, Sharp said. 
 
 But Belcher told Pioli that the assistance wasnt enough to fix their problems and now, It was too late. 
 
 When another Chiefs employee arrived, Pioli told him to stay back. Meanwhile Pioli tried to persuade Belcher to lay down the weapon, Sharp said. 
 
 Belcher thanked Pioli for everything he had done for him. He asked if he and Clark Hunt would take care of his daughter. 
 
 Chiefs Head Coach Romeo Crennel and linebackers coach Gary Gibbs arrived in the parking lot and Belcher reportedly announced, Guys, I have to do this. 
 
 Crennel tried to dissuade him. 
 
 I was trying to get him to understand that life is not over, Crennel told The Star. He still has a chance and lets get this worked out. 
 
 As Pioli and Crennel tried to reason with Belcher, the men heard police sirens closing in. Belcher then walked a few steps away with the gun still pointed at his head. 
 
 I got to go, Belcher reportedly said. I cant be here. 
 
 Belcher knelt behind a vehicle and made the sign of the cross across his chest before firing a single bullet into his head. 
 
 Kansas City police believe Belcher killed himself because he was distraught over what he had done to Perkins. 
 
 He cared about her, Sharp said. I dont think he could live with himself. 
 
 The night before the killings, Perkins had attended a concert downtown with friends, and Belcher had partied at the Power and Light District, police said. It was unclear when they arrived home, where Belchers mother was watching their baby. A woman who answered Belchers mothers cell phone Monday declined to comment. 
 
 Detectives dont know what specifically sparked the argument between the couple at home, but a friend of Perkins told The Star that the couple argued around 1 a.m. Saturday when Perkins returned home from the Trey Songz concert and drinks with friends afterward. Belcher was mad she had stayed out so late, the friend said. 
 
 Sometime later, Kansas City police talked with Belcher after finding him asleep in his Bentley on Armour Boulevard. Officers determined he was able to drive himself home. Police believe he arrived home about 7 a.m., well before a 9:30 team meeting. Thats when the yelling began. 
 
 Police said youth, immaturity and financial pressures served as a backdrop. During his college years, Belcher allegedly punched a dormitory window because he was upset over a woman. 
 
 Autopsies with toxicology tests were performed on both bodies, but results will take weeks, police said. Investigators believe alcohol may have played a role in the arguments escalation. 
 
 Police recovered several legally owned guns from Belchers home. Investigators were testing each one, and the gun found with Belchers body, against shell casings and bullets they recovered. 
 
 Police spokesman Darin Snapp said Monday that Belchers mother, who had been staying with the couple, was given temporary custody of the couples daughter. But he said it was unclear if the grandmother and baby were still in the Kansas City area. 
 
 Perkins, who grew up in Texas, met Belcher, who grew up in New York, through a cousin, Whitney Golden Charles, the wife of Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles. Perkins moved to Kansas City in 2010 to be with Belcher. Her relatives learned of her death from the news, police said. A woman who answered the phone at a relatives home Monday declined to comment. 
 
 Monday afternoon, the family issued a statement that spelled Perkins first name with a double s, though she spelled it with one on her Facebook page: 
 
 On behalf of the Perkins Family, we appreciate the outpouring of love and concern for our Kassandra Kasi Perkins. Our hearts are truly broken for Kasi was a beloved daughter, granddaughter, sister, mother, cousin and friend. 
 
 Please keep us in your hearts and prayers as well as the Belcher family for two lives were loss. Again we thank you for your support, our wish is for Kasi to be remembered for the love she shared with us all. Kasi will be truly missed! 
 
 Jamaal Charles also released a statement: Our family has suffered a personal tragic loss. As this is a very tough time for our family, I ask that we are respected as we grieve. Kassandra was not only family, but a friend and a loving mother. As my actual family and my Kansas City Chiefs family have been altered forever, we ask that you keep us and most importantly their child in prayer. Thank you all for your continued support. 
 
 Later Monday, Belchers somber relatives provided statements outside of Belchers boyhood home in New York. Yamiesse Lawrence, a cousin of Belchers, said the weekends events were an inconceivable tragedy. 
 
 As a family, no words can express the sorrow we feel over the loss of Jovan and Kasandra, Lawrence read aloud. 
 
 The Kansas City Stars Randy Covitz and Adam Teicher and The Associated Press contributed to this report. To reach Christine Vendel send email to cvendel@kcstar.com. 

 Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher spent part of the night at a woman’s apartment and stayed until 6:30 a.m. Saturday before going home, killing his longtime girlfriend and later himself, Kansas City police said Tuesday. 
 
 • 8:01 a.m.: Police called to Arrowhead Stadium practice facility on a disturbance involving an armed person in the parking lot. 
 
 • 2:59 a.m.: Two officers are sent to check out the car. 
 
 • 1 a.m.: Perkins, who has arrived home on Crysler Avenue, argues with Belcher. She later phones a friend about the argument but doesn’t say whether it happened in person or by phone. 
 
 • Midnight to 12:30 a.m. Saturday: Perkins connects with another group of friends. 
 
 • About 8 p.m. Friday: Kasandra Perkins meets with friends at the Trey Songz concert at the Midland Theater. During the concert, Perkins exchanges text and phone calls with Jovan Belcher, who spends at least part of the evening with friends in the Power & Light District. 
 
 Police officers had contact with Belcher outside of the woman’s apartment building about 2:50 a.m. Saturday after someone called 911 to report a suspicious car that had been in the parking lot for about two hours with its lights on. 
 
 Officers arrived at the building in the 700 block of Armour Boulevard, found the car, a black Bentley with temporary tags, and saw a man sleeping in the driver’s seat. The officers knocked on the window, woke the man — later identified as Belcher — and asked him what he was doing. He told officers he was waiting for his girlfriend who lived in the building, said police spokesman Darin Snapp. 
 
 The officers asked Belcher to call his girlfriend and Belcher made a call from his cell phone, Snapp said. A short time later, a woman opened the apartment building door and let Belcher inside. The woman waved at police, who left because Belcher had no outstanding warrants and had committed no crimes. Belcher was very cooperative and may have consumed some alcohol but did not appear inebriated, Snapp said. 
 
 A woman who lives at the apartment building confirmed to The Star that Belcher had stayed at her apartment, on a couch. She said the woman that Belcher was trying to visit, Brittni Glass, was asleep. That’s why Belcher couldn’t reach Glass, the woman said. 
 
 The woman, who didn’t provide her name, said neither she nor Glass let Belcher into the building. She said a resident who had been outside smoking a cigarette let Belcher inside because “they knew him and knew it was OK to let him inside.” 
 
 The woman said Glass and Belcher were just friends. 
 
 “This has been a hard time for everyone,” she said. 
 
 Glass told The Star: “I feel like this whole thing has been blown out of proportion.” She declined further comment. 
 
 Her attorney, Cline Boone, said Glass has been “harassed” for the past two days by reporters, including some who are camped out in her parking lot, and she “just wants to be left alone.” 
 
 “She’s sorry for the deceased in this incident, and she wants their families to be able to grieve,” he said. 
 
 Snapp said two women verified to detectives that Belcher stayed at the apartment until 6:30 a.m., when they woke him. The women told police that Belcher had asked them to wake him so he would not be late for a team meeting later that morning. 
 
 Belcher, 25, apparently left their apartment and drove to the 5400 block of Crysler Avenue, where he shared a home with his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, 22, and their 3-month-old daughter. 
 
 The couple had a confrontation after he arrived home. His mother, who was staying with the couple, heard yelling and gunshots. Perkins was shot nine times, according to sources close to the investigation. 
 
 Belcher then drove to the Chiefs’ practice facility near Arrowhead Stadium, where he talked to general manager Scott Pioli, head coach Romeo Crennel and linebackers coach Gary Gibbs before shooting himself once in the head. 
 
 Police revealed Tuesday that two handguns were used in the killings: one gun at the home and another at the stadium parking lot. 
 
 Belcher bought both guns locally, police said. He purchased one in 2010 and one in 2011. 
 
 Sports Illustrated on Tuesday reported a text-message exchange Friday between Belcher and Reggie Paramoure, who played defense with Belcher at the University of Maine. Belcher wrote: “everything good bro, baby momma crazy but I have a little girl almost 3 month man and she’s a blessing, she makes me smile on the worst day.” 
 
 According to SI, Paramoure responded to the text by jokingly suggesting Belcher should have a gun ready to keep future boyfriends away from his daughter. 
 
 Belcher replied: “Yea man I got about 8 guns now, from hand Gunz to assault rifles for her little bf’s.” 
 
 Police declined to answer specific questions Tuesday about the killings. They said they were close to finishing their investigation and planned to send it to prosecutors for review. 

 After hearing the details of how Jovan Belcher murdered his girlfriend, his friends and family are left to wonder who they really knew. Jamie Squire/Getty Images 
 
 This story appears in the Dec. 10, 2012, issue of Sports Illustrated. Buy the digital version of the magazine here. 
 
 For a Thanksgiving video on the Chiefs' website, fourth-year linebacker Jovan Belcher smiled into the camera and shared what he was thankful for: "First and foremost, God, family and friends just keeping me focused." To friends in private, his recent messages were more complex and unrecognizable as having come from the same person. 
 
 Reggie Paramoure, who played on defense with Belcher at the University of Maine, was texting with his former teammate last Friday night. "I see yall boys aint doing too well," Paramoure wrote, referring to the Chiefs' 1-10 start. "Wats goen on wit u besides ball." 
 
 "Yea man," Belcher replied, "our 'o' can't even put 7 in the board for us, but everything good bro, baby momma crazy but I have a little girl almost 3 month man and she's a blessing, she makes me smile on the worst day." 
 
 "Daughter!" Paramoure wrote, and then jokingly suggested that Belcher better have a gun ready to ward off future boyfriends. "Yea man," Belcher responded, "I got about 8 guns now, from hand Gunz to assault rifles for her little bf's." 
 
 The previous week's game had been the first this season that Belcher, 25, did not start. "I'm good bro," he wrote, toward the end of the exchange, "just trying to stay on the field and get this new contract but this losing s**t ain't helping." 
 
 On Saturday morning Belcher used one of his handguns to kill Kasandra Perkins, the mother of his daughter, before killing himself. 
 
 "Just the night before, I was checking up on him," Paramoure says. "That's what's so surreal, that I was literally speaking to him the night before." Belcher was generally a quiet man, says Paramoure, but, "he was very emotional. I believe that's what made him so good [on the field]." 
 
 Why Belcher did what he did is, and may remain, unanswerable. In an age of "like" buttons and online postings, links and tweets, a "profile" can be created with a few keystrokes. But the person behind that profile remains altogether more complex. The contrast between Belcher's blithe Thanksgiving message and the texts he exchanged with Paramoure is emblematic of the diverse characterizations of Belcher, which left even those who knew him well wondering what they really knew. 
 
 Belcher was just the kind of player Maine football coach Jack Cosgrove liked. Cosgrove refers to his program as the Island of Misfit Toys -- a reference to the site of exile for flawed, unwanted playthings in the old Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer television special -- because no player ends up there by design. 
 
 "It's the guys who were too small, or too slow, or not developed enough; guys with something to prove," says Matt King, one of Belcher's teammates at Maine and now an assistant strength coach there. Maine was the only school that offered the undersized Belcher a scholarship, coming out of West Babylon (N.Y.) High. Once there, though, he seemed to fit perfectly. 
 
 Inside SI Podcast David Epstein explains the work behind his Jovan Belcher story. 
 
 
 
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 Belcher graduated with a degree in child development and family relations. He was a mentor in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. (Belcher was raised by his mother and older sisters.) He participated in the university's Male Athletes Against Violence group, which seeks to educate men about their role in the prevention of domestic violence. He was humble, the proverbial man of few words. 
 
 In late October, when Belcher was in West Babylon for his high school's homecoming game, he avoided the sideline, lest he be asked to give a speech. "To get him loud," says Ollie Roy, 30, a longtime friend from the area, "you'd really have to piss him off." 
 
 It could, however, be done. 
 
 According to Steven Barker, a former defensive back at Maine, Belcher once had to get stitches in his thumb after he punched a glass panel during an argument with Jessica Higgins, his long-term college girlfriend. The team was forced to run as punishment. "They had their arguments and fights," Barker says, "but nothing crazy." It was, as far as anyone knows, an isolated incident. Most of the time, Belcher was the ideal student-athlete. 
 
 Still, Cosgrove knew better than to presume that he could see everything inside his misfit toys. "Everyone has a dark side," he said on Saturday on Maine's campus. "I do know that for all Jovan's successes, he didn't have successful relationships with women." 
 
 Kasandra Perkins, 22, was, technically, a girlfriend. But for all intents and purposes, she was a spouse. Belcher and Perkins referred to one another as husband and wife, and Belcher's mother called Perkins her daughter. Belcher brought Perkins and her relatives to a Fourth of July block party in West Babylon last year. On Matthews Avenue, the block where Belcher grew up, it was a big deal. 
 
 West Babylon is 80 percent white, but a small geographic triangle that residents refer to as "the CMG" -- because it contains Commander, Matthews and Gordon avenues -- is overwhelmingly African-American, and extremely close knit. Bringing a significant other from out of town to the CMG really meant something. 
 
 Roy saw Belcher at the July 4th party and again on the block this October. Belcher was friendly -- he knocked on Roy's door, as always -- but, to Roy's surprise, did not mention his daughter, Zoey, born on Sept. 11 in Kansas City. People who knew Belcher and Perkins in Kansas City had seen the cracks developing in their relationship. 
 
 Brianne York, 21, befriended Perkins at Metropolitan Community College-Blue River in Independence, Mo., and noticed that football and a new child were straining Belcher's and Perkins's relationship. Perkins would mention, unhappily, that Belcher was often out late doing "team bonding stuff," she says. According to another of Perkins's friends, Devene Dunson-Rusher, team bonding sometimes meant drinking, and Perkins was uneasy with some of the Chiefs players with whom Belcher was carousing. Before Zoey was born, says Dunson-Rusher, Belcher wanted Perkins to get a job. After the birth, according to York, Belcher was upset when she didn't clean the house. According to Belcher's friends, Perkins wanted to upgrade their lifestyle and move to a different house. Perkins did move to another house, but not with Belcher. 
 
 She left with Zoey and moved first into the home of Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles, whose wife is Perkins' cousin, and then in with her family in North Texas. But the couple reconciled, and Perkins moved back in with Belcher last month. Belcher's mother had just moved to Kansas City from West Babylon to help care for Zoey and take some pressure off the couple. Briefly, by outward appearances anyway, the two were happy again. 
 
 Belcher and Perkins, York says, enjoyed going to gun ranges together. Once, when York was at the couple's house, she noticed a handgun on the kitchen table. "I guess they forgot it was out," she says. Dunson-Rusher recalls once seeing a rifle leaning against a chair in the room she called Belcher's man cave. Again, underscoring how wide the gulf can be between one perception of a man and another, every one of the West Babylon friends of Belcher's who spoke with SI had no idea he was interested in guns. 
 
 According to a law enforcement official close to the investigation -- and contrary to published reports -- Belcher spent Friday night "partying" with another woman at the Power and Light District, a bar area in downtown K.C. He returned home between 6:30 and 7 a.m., at which point he and Perkins argued. Then, with his own mother in the house, Belcher used a handgun to shoot the mother of his baby girl nine times. He then drove to the Chiefs' practice facility in a Bentley so new it had temporary plates. 
 
 At the facility, Belcher jumped out of the car holding a different handgun and encountered general manager Scott Pioli, who was heading into the building. Belcher thanked Pioli for giving him a chance as an undrafted player. He then confessed that he had shot his girlfriend and insisted that he was not going to jail. He asked to have head coach Romeo Crennel sent out. Crennel emerged, and Belcher thanked him too. 
 
 Crennel and Pioli pleaded with Belcher to put the gun down, but Belcher was beyond coach's orders. He turned around and walked about 20 feet. He took a knee -- as football players do at the end of games from the time they're in peewee -- and shot himself in the head. 
 
 Inevitably, those who knew Belcher were left wondering what they could have done. Before she blocked her Twitter feed, Higgins, Belcher's girlfriend at Maine, wrote, "I just can't help but to think what if I didn't miss that phone call." Said Jets defensive end Mike DeVito, who hosted Belcher on his recruiting trip to Maine and played alongside him for three seasons, "I wish I had stayed in contact with him, because you'll always wonder, could you have helped?" Said Jarrod Gomes, who played safety in college beside Belcher, "We can't believe it. ... We're trying to figure out what was really going on in his life." 
 
 If Belcher needed urgent help, none of the people who spoke with SI knew it. "I'd never seen any outbursts," said Willis Miles, Belcher's uncle. 
 
 A video on the Kansas City Star website shows Belcher sprawled on the floor of a church, patiently tutoring an eight-year-old in reading. On Belcher's public Facebook page, he "liked" photography and Family Guy. As professional athletes go, he seemed so knowable. But "likes" can go only so far in revealing the true substance of a person and just what is going on in his mind. Now, all who knew Belcher -- from his mother, Cheryl Shepard, who was to return to New York with her orphaned granddaughter, to the player's friends in Kansas City, Maine and West Babylon -- are left to wonder who they really knew. 
 
 Chris Almonte, a 23-year-old father of six and a friend of Belcher's from the CMG, was working in his yard when he got a phone call with the news on Saturday morning. It was so at odds with his conception of Belcher that all Almonte could think to do was to bury the phone in the hole he had been digging, as if that would make the news go away. 
 
 Like Cosgrove, Belcher's high school coach, Albert Ritacco, has been around football players long enough to understand what he cannot understand. "I can't find anything negative to say from the four years I coached him," Ritacco says. "But trying to understand what goes on in a man's life outside of football is a little different. I don't know why things happen in life. Who knows?" 
 
 Special reporting by Thayer Evans, Pete Thamel, Dennis Dillon, Jim Trotter and Matt Gagne.
– Police released the 911 phone call made by Jovan Belcher's mother in the moments after the linebacker fatally shot his girlfriend, and it's as wrenching as you'd expect. "Oh my God. Oh my God. Cassie," Cheryl Shepherd sobs over the wails of Belcher's infant daughter, reports CNN. She continues: "She is still breathing but barely. Please hurry. I don't know how many times he shot her. They had been arguing ... She's just barely. She is moving when I talk to her. ... You hear me? Kasandra! Hey! Stay with me!" When a police officer joins the line and begins to ask for details about her son's whereabouts, Shepherd falls silent, though the baby's cries can still be heard. More on the story: Police also shared more details about their early-morning interaction with Belcher on the day of the shooting, reports the Kansas City Star. Around 3am police found Belcher sleeping in his car outside an apartment building 10 miles from the home he shared with Perkins. When they asked what he was doing there, he said he was supposed to visit his "girlfriend," but that she wasn't home. He made a phone call and was let into the building by a resident; the girl's roommate told police Belcher slept on the couch until 6:30am, about 1 hour and 20 minutes before police were notified of the shooting. Sports Illustrated shares details of an eerie text message exchange between Belcher and an old college teammate the day before the shooting. After texting that his daughter was "a blessing, she makes me smile on the worst day," his friend joked that Belcher would need a gun to keep the boys away. He responded, "Yea man I got about 8 guns now, from hand Gunz to assault rifles for her little bf's." Just how aware was Belcher's team of his relationship problems? The Star reports that the team had provided counseling to the couple.