Video: Police Talk to NFL Player Hours Before Killings

Kansas City police have released dash-cam video of their encounter with Chiefs player Jovan Belcher hours before he killed his girlfriend and then himself. Officers responding to a 911 call found him sleeping in his parked car about 3am and woke him up, reports the Kansas City Star. “You just need to go upstairs,” one officer says. “We’re trying to cut you a break here.” Belcher cooperates, calls a woman (not the girlfriend he killed) who lives inside the building, and goes inside.

He apparently slept there til about 6:30, then returned home and shot his girlfriend after an argument. Police have come under criticism for not detaining Belcher, but a department spokesman says the video vindicates the officers. “There was no cause for a field test,” he says. “The responding officers did not smell any alcohol. As you can see, there is no stumbling, there is no slurring. You need pieces in place to give a field sobriety test. You need indications.” (More Jovan Belcher stories.)