McNair remembered as police seek answers in death … click for story and videos
Published 12:00 am Sunday, July 5, 2009
NASHVILLE (AP) — The shooting death of former NFL quarterback Steve McNair raised questions Sunday about his relationship with the 20-year-old woman whose body was found alongside him in his downtown condominium.
McNair, a four-time Pro Bowl selection who was married with four children, was found Saturday with multiple gunshot wounds on a sofa in his living room. The woman was killed by a single gunshot wound and a pistol was discovered near her, police said.
Authorities didn’t immediately say who was to blame for the killings, but they weren’t looking for any suspects.
Police do not believe McNair’s wife was involved, spokesman Don Aarons said. Mechelle McNair, mother of two of his four sons, was expected to collect her husband’s belongings from authorities. Funeral arrangements were not expected to be finalized until Monday afternoon at the earliest.
“She’s still very upset, very distraught,” agent Bus Cook said.
VIDEO: Click to see a tribute to Steve McNair
VIDEO: Click to see Steve McNair tribute in still photos
TEXT: Click to read Nashville Police report
McNair led the famous Tennessee Titans’ drive that came a yard short of forcing overtime in the 2000 Super Bowl. He retired in last year. “On the field, there isn’t a player that was as tough as him,” the Ravens’ Derrick Mason said.
Friends declined to describe the relationship between McNair and the woman, Sahel Kazemi, who was a waitress at a restaurant quarterback and his family frequented. Police only described her as a “friend.”
But a neighbor saw McNair, 36, at Kazemi’s apartment so often — two to three times a week — that he thought McNair had moved in. McNair never tried to hide his presence but kept to himself.
Neighbor Reagan Howard said Kazemi often was dropped off in the early morning hours by a limousine and upgraded recently from her Kia to a Cadillac Escalade.
“It was pretty obvious that she was taken with him,” Howard said.
McNair and Kazemi had been together just two days earlier, when she was pulled over driving a 2007 Escalade registered to her and McNair. She was arrested on a DUI charges, and he was allowed to leave in a taxi.
The bodies were discovered by McNair’s longtime friend, Wayne Neeley, who rents the condo in the upscale Rutledge Hill neighborhood with McNair.
Neeley then called Robert Gaddy, who had been friends with McNair since they played at Alcorn State. Gaddy alerted authorities.
“People have certain things that they do in life,” Gaddy told the Associated Press on Sunday. “We don’t need to look on the situation at this time (but) on the fact we just lost a great member of society.”
Cook said he was not aware that McNair was seeing Kazemi, a woman whose name the agent learned about through reports of the shooting.
“It doesn’t make any sense. I don’t know what to say,” Cook said.
Police said a witness saw McNair arrive at the condo early Saturday and that Kazemi’s vehicle was already there. The condominium is located within walking distance of an area filled with restaurants and nightspots, a few blocks from the Cumberland River and within view of the Titans’ stadium.
Autopsies were conducted Sunday with results expected later in the day.
Fred McNair, Steve McNair’s oldest brother, said some family members would likely travel to Nashville on Monday to consult with Mechelle.
“It’s still kind of hard to believe,” Fred McNair said. “He was the greatest person in the world. He gave back to the community. He loved kids and he wanted to be a role model to kids.”
McNair and his wife split their time between Nashville and their farm in Mount Olive, Missippi, according to a statement from the Titans.
An arrest affidavit from Thursday said Kazemi had bloodshot eyes and alcohol on her breath when she was pulled over, but refused a breathalyzer test, saying “she was not drunk, she was high.”
Kazemi’s ex-boyfriend, Keith Norfleet, told The Tennessean that McNair and Kazemi met at the Dave & Buster’s in Nashville where she worked.
“She was reliable 90% of the time,” manager Chris Truelove said of Kazemi. “She was pretty outgoing. A lot of the guests liked being around her, and she liked being around the guests.”
Co-worker Shantez Jobe, 33, she said was friends with Kazemi.
“We talked about who had more fashion sense, and who was the cutest, and who could get more boys, you know some of the stuff girls do,” Jobe said.
In June, McNair opened a restaurant near the Tennessee State University campus. It was closed Saturday evening, but had become a small memorial, where flowers, candles and notes had been placed outside the door.