Belcher's mom begged Perkins to live

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)

Jovan Belcher's mother begged her son's dying girlfriend to stay alive while frantically asking for an ambulance shortly after the Kansas City Chiefs linebacker shot the mother of his 3-month-old daughter, according to a recording released Wednesday of the emergency call.

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Belcher, 25, shot 22-year-old Kasandra Perkins at their Kansas City home Saturday morning, then drove to Arrowhead Stadium, where he shot himself in the head in front of Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli and Coach Romeo Crennel, police said.

''She's still breathing but please hurry,'' Cheryl Shepherd says on the recording of her call with Kansas City emergency dispatchers. ''I don't know how he (inaudible), they were arguing, please hurry.''

Shepherd also is heard encouraging Perkins to stay alive.

''Stay with me, the ambulance is on the way. Stay with me Kasandra, stay with me,'' Shepherd yells.

Shepherd told dispatchers that Perkins was bleeding, ''just barely'' awake and that it looked as though she was wounded in the back. She said Perkins moved when she spoke to her.

When a police dispatcher asked about Belcher, Shepherd says only: ''He left.''

When police arrived at the couple's home at about 7:50 a.m., they found Perkins' body on the floor of the master bathroom with multiple gunshot wounds, according to a police incident report.

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A memorial was held in North Texas for Perkins on Thursday.

Friends have said the couple had a strained relationship in the weeks before the shooting.

The days since Belcher killed his girlfriend and then himself have been very difficult for his mother, who said Wednesday that the slayings have not diminished her love for the couple.

Shepherd had been living with her son and 22-year-old Kasandra Perkins to help care for their 3-month-old daughter, Zoey.

''That's my son, and I love him,'' Shepherd said in a brief telephone conversation Wednesday. ''She's my daughter-in-law, just like my daughter.''

Shepherd, 54, declined to say anything more about her son but did say she was not happy about the release Wednesday of recordings of the emergency phone call she made Saturday after Perkins was shot.

''I just got a phone call that they did that, and I don't appreciate it,'' she said. ''Right now I don't want to talk about it.''

BEARS REPEATING

Kasandra Perkins and Jovan Belcher would be alive if there had been no handgun in their home, Jason Whitlock says.

Shepherd, who has temporary custody of the couple's baby, said she and Perkins were very close.

''She was a lovely, beautiful young woman. And we had a beautiful relationship,'' Shepherd said.

Shepherd said her family has been helping her a great deal since the shootings, but that she has had trouble eating and sleeping as she works on her son's funeral arrangements.

''Right now I'm working on everything,'' she said.

Hours before the murder-suicide, police found Belcher sleeping in his car outside an apartment complex about 10 miles from the home he shared with Perkins and their child. He told officers he was at the apartment to visit a woman he described as his girlfriend, but that she wasn't home. Belcher then made a phone call and a woman let him into the building, police said. Police did not question the woman and said they don't know who she is.

Belcher and Perkins lived apart recently but got back together by Thanksgiving, friend Brianne York told The Associated Press.

At Arrowhead, Belcher thanked Pioli and Crennel for all they had done for him. The men tried to persuade Belcher to put down his handgun but when police arrived, Belcher moved behind a vehicle, knelt down and shot himself once in the head, police said.