Denver Broncos wide receiver Kenny McKinley, who is thought to have killed himself with a gunshot to the head, had made previous statements about committing suicide, according to a sheriff’s investigative report released Tuesday.
The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s report quoted one investigator as saying McKinley had been depressed over a knee surgery he had a month ago.
“He had made statements while playing dominoes shortly after the surgery that he should just kill himself,” the officer reported. “No one believed he was serious.”
The report provided no explanation for the source of the investigator’s information.
The report also said McKinley had made statements about not knowing what he would do without football. It said McKinley had flown to South Carolina 10 days earlier to see his young son and had brought him back with him to Denver on Sunday night.
Two female friends who were taking care of his son discovered McKinley’s body Monday and called 911. Detectives who responded to his home a few miles from the Broncos headquarters found McKinley’s body with a pillow over his head and a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol on top of the pillow. They also noted a strong odor of freshly burned marijuana, according to the report.
The officers said the NFL Network was on the television in the bedroom.
The report also said McKinley was taking 500 mg naproxen tablets, which is in a class of anti-inflammatories called NSAIDS, but listed no other medications.
Arapahoe County Coroner Michael Dobersen said Tuesday that McKinley died of a gunshot wound to the head. He said a preliminary investigation “suggests the wound to be self-inflicted.”
Brittany Boyd, the wife of former Broncos running back Cory Boyd, who was McKinley’s best friend and college teammate, was one of the two women who were taking care of McKinley’s toddler son when they discovered McKinley had shot himself.
She told The Associated Press she didn’t know who told the investigators that McKinley had mentioned suicide — “That wasn’t from us,” she said — but added that she wouldn’t be surprised if nobody would have taken such a threat seriously.
Via:Toshiba.com/news
