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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Shot twice in the head and two more times in the chest, former NFL quarterback Steve McNair was the victim of a homicide, police declared Sunday. But authorities wouldn’t say it was a murder-suicide – even with his 20-year-old girlfriend dead at his feet from a single bullet.
McNair had been dating Saleh Kazemi for several months, and Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said Sunday that a semiautomatic pistol was found under her body. She was shot in the head.
McNair, who was married with four sons, had a permit to carry a handgun in Tennessee, and he was arrested once before with a 9 mm weapon although charges in the case were dropped. Police said they had not yet determined who owned the gun found at the scene.
Investigators weren’t looking for a suspect but were questioning friends of the couple as well as Kazemi’s ex-boyfriend. They were also waiting for results of drug and other laboratory tests before deciding whether McNair was killed in a lovers’ quarrel.
“That’s a very important part of the investigation as we work to ultimately classify Miss Kazemi’s death,” Aaron said.
McNair and Kazemi were found dead at a Nashville condominium – which overlooks the Titans stadium – that he rented with his friend Wayne Neeley. Police believe both died early Saturday. Neeley found the bodies hours later, and called a friend, Robert Gaddy, who played at Alcorn State with McNair. Gaddy dialed 911.
The quarterback’s agent, Bus Cook, said he had never heard Kazemi’s name until news of the shooting broke Saturday. What McNair’s wife knew wasn’t clear Sunday. Cook said Mechelle McNair was “in and out of it.” He said she had no comment after the police called his death a homicide.
“It doesn’t make any sense. I don’t know what to say,” Cook said.
Mechelle was “very upset, very distraught” Sunday, Cook said. She was preparing to finish funeral arrangements Monday.
McNair met Kazemi when his family ate often at the Dave & Buster’s restaurant she worked at as a server, and the two began dating in a relationship that included a vacation with parasailing. Photos posted on TMZ.com showed McNair gazing and smiling at the young Kazemi.
“She pretty obviously got mixed up way over her head with folks,” said Reagan Howard, a neighbor of Kazemi’s.
The victim’s sister, Soheyla Kazemi, told the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville that the young woman had expected McNair to get a divorce. “She said they were planning to get married.”
Kazemi often was dropped off by limousine in the early morning hours and recently went from driving a Kia to a 2007 Cadillac Escalade registered to both her and McNair. Her niece told The Tennessean that Kazemi thought McNair was divorcing his wife of 12 years soon.
Nashville courts had no record of a McNair divorce case, but a home he owned in Nashville is on the market for $3 million.
McNair and Kazemi were together Thursday night when she was pulled over driving that Escalade. She was arrested on a DWI charge, and he was allowed to leave in a taxi even though he was charged with drunken-driving in 2007 when his brother-in-law was stopped for DWI while driving McNair’s pickup truck.
McNair who led the Titans to the 2000 Super Bowl, was co-MVP of the NFL with Colts quarterback Peyton Manning in 2003.
Manning said in a statement Sunday that he had some great battles with the quarterback.
“Sharing the NFL MVP honor with him in 2003 was special because of what a great football player he was,” Manning said. “I had the opportunity to play in a couple of Pro Bowls with him, and the time spent with him in Hawaii I’ll never forget. I’ll truly miss him.”
Besides his wife, McNair is survived his sons Junior, Steven, Tyler and Trenton.
