Report: Jovan Belcher questioned baby's paternity before killing girlfriend, himself

Jovan Belcher shot and killed girlfriend Kasandra Perkins at their home before committing suicide on Dec. 1. (Ed Zurga/Getty Images)

The mother of Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher told investigators her son argued with his girlfriend Kasandra Perkins over their baby’s paternity before he shot her dead and killed himself, according to a New York Post report.

Cheryl Shepherd was in her son’s suburban Kansas City home the morning he shot Perkins nine times. She told investigators after the shootings that there were questions about whether Belcher was the father of the couple’s 3-month-old daughter, Zoey, said sources familiar with the situation.

“The mother believed that there was an issue over whether [Belcher] was the father,” said a source close to the Chiefs with knowledge of the situation.

“She said he [believed he] wasn’t necessarily the father of the child.”

The Post reports a Kansas City law-enforcement source confirmed, “She told [police] there was a question about the paternity.”

Investigators have not confirmed that the paternity issue was the motive for Belcher shooting Perkins.

“But the implication was that [paternity] was what the two of them were fighting about — that the baby might not have been his,” a source said.