A Florida girl is clinging to life after surviving a horrifying family tragedy that unfolded just days before Christmas.
The 13-year-old is in critical but stable condition and has been able to speak with investigators.
According to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, she told him the chilling moment she tried to stop the violence.
"And he shot me anyway," she said, per PEOPLE.
She was referring to Jason Kenney, her 47-year-old stepfather, who murdered her mother, Crystal Kenney, on December 22 before turning the gun on her. Jason later died by suicide.
NFL game dispute escalates into deadly violence
The night turned deadly over something shockingly trivial - a disagreement over Monday Night Football.
Jason had been watching the San Francisco 49ers play the Indianapolis Colts in a shed behind the house.
He returned inside to watch the final minutes on the main TV, but Crystal objected to him taking over. An argument erupted, and quickly spiraled out of control.
During the fight, Crystal told her 12-year-old son to run to the neighbor’s house and call 911.
Sheriff Judd explained what happened next: "So the 12-year-old flees to the neighbor's house in order to dial 911, and as he's leaving the house, he hears a gunshot."
Deputies arrived within five minutes to a chilling scene. Crystal had been fatally shot in the head. But she wasn’t the only one targeted.
Inside a bedroom, the 13-year-old girl had been shot twice - once in the shoulder and once in the face.
Judd shared the shocking path of the bullet: "We later learned the bullet in the face hit her on the bridge of the nose, went straight up, and out the top of her head. That's a Christmas miracle."
Meanwhile, the couple’s one-year-old daughter was found unharmed, asleep in her crib.
Killer left a warning before taking his own life
Jason Kenney fled the scene before police arrived, but not before making a haunting phone call.
On his way to his late father’s home, he called his sister in New York and said: "I’ve done something very, very bad. The next time you see me will be on the news."
When officers located him barricaded in a shed at the property, a single gunshot rang out as they approached. Jason was later found dead from a self-inflicted wound.
Inside the family home, detectives discovered a handwritten note from Crystal urging Jason to seek help for substance abuse. The emotional message read: "You’re drinking, you’re using cocaine again. This is not the way the family should be. You need God."
Devastated family faces Christmas nightmare
All three children are now in the custody of their maternal grandparents. Sheriff Judd painted a heartbreaking picture of what deputies found at the crime scene.
"The entire family was destroyed. Our homicide detectives are distraught. When you go in there, there is a beautiful Christmas tree with lots of Christmas presents under it, just like the nuclear family should be."
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