Dallas Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland has died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police in Frisco, Texas, said Thursday. He was 24.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is with extreme sadness that the Dallas Cowboys share that Marshawn Kneeland tragically passed away this morning,\u201d the Cowboys said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cMarshawn was a beloved teammate and member of our organization. Our thoughts and prayers regarding Marshawn are with his girlfriend Catalina and his family.\u201d<\/p>\n The Frisco Police Department said it was called at approximately 10:39 p.m. Wednesday to help the Texas Department of Public Safety to find a vehicle that had entered the city during a pursuit. The state-level law-enforcement agency said in a statement Thursday that it had attempted to stop the vehicle for a traffic violation, but the driver had refused to stop.<\/p>\n The vehicle was soon found unoccupied, crashed on southbound Dallas Parkway near Warren Parkway. A man \u2014 later identified as Kneeland, a resident of nearby Plano \u2014 was reported to have fled the scene on foot. <\/p>\n Frisco police were told during the search that Kneeland had expressed \u201csuicidal ideations,\u201d the department said in a statement. \u201cKneeland was later located at 1:31a.m., deceased with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The cause\/manner of death will be determined by the Collin County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office.\u201d<\/p>\n The Plano Police Department had visited Kneeland\u2019s residence at the request of Frisco police at 11 p.m. Wednesday night but officers were unable to make contact with anyone there. At 11:40 p.m., Plano police said, officers responded to a separate call for a welfare concern associated with Kneeland at the same address, but again were unable to make contact.<\/p>\n Kneeland was selected by the Cowboys out of Western Michigan in the second round of the 2024 draft, less than three months after his mother, Wendy Kneeland, died suddenly of an undisclosed illness. Kneeland told the Dallas Morning News<\/a> last year that he carried some of his mother\u2019s ashes with him everywhere in a tiny urn on a chain around his neck.<\/p>\n \u201cShe helped me a lot in my younger years getting into football,\u201d Kneeland said. \u201cI always had the dream. I always told her, \u2018I\u2019m going to the NFL\u2019 and I made it. It\u2019s a hard situation just knowing she got to see me potentially going to the NFL and going through [the process]. She\u2019s still with me. I got this urn of her ashes I carry with me everywhere. I still feel like she\u2019s there watching over me.\u201d<\/p>\n Kneeland played in 18 games, including four starts, and had 26 tackles, four quarterback hits and one sack. On Monday night against the Arizona Cardinals, Kneeland recovered a blocked punt in the end zone for his first NFL touchdown.<\/p>\n \u201cI watched him fight his way from a hopeful kid at Western Michigan with a dream to being a respected professional for the Dallas Cowboys,\u201d Kneeland\u2019s agent, Jonathan Perzley, said in a statement. \u201cMarshawn poured his heart into every snap, every practice, and every moment on the field. To lose someone with his talent, spirit, and goodness is a pain I can hardly put into words.\u201d<\/p>\n Kneeland\u2019s family also released a statement Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are devastated by this tremendous loss and are still processing the depth of our grief,\u201d the family said. \u201cAs Marshawn was making his mark on the football field with the Dallas Cowboys, he held an even more special place off the field \u2014 as a devoted son, brother, uncle, cousin, nephew, grandson, and friend. He was kind, determined, humble, and full of love. His light shone brightly in every life he touched, and his spirit will continue to live on through the countless hearts he inspired.\u201d<\/p>\n Suicide prevention and crisis counseling resources<\/p>\n If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, seek help from a professional and call 9-8-8. The United States\u2019 first nationwide three-digit mental health crisis hotline 988 will connect callers with trained mental health counselors. Text \u201cHOME\u201d to 741741 in the U.S. and Canada to reach the Crisis Text Line<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland has died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police in Frisco, Texas,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":360572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,19092,1596,175221,246,2091,175220,20165,73704,73703,73709,17241,175223,175222,11004,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,6189,175079],"class_list":{"0":"post-360571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-contact","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys-share","12":"tag-family","13":"tag-field","14":"tag-frisco-police-department","15":"tag-gunshot-wound","16":"tag-kneeland","17":"tag-marshawn","18":"tag-marshawn-kneeland","19":"tag-mother","20":"tag-nearby-plano","21":"tag-plano-police-department","22":"tag-statement","23":"tag-texas","24":"tag-tx","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-states-of-america","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","29":"tag-us","30":"tag-usa","31":"tag-vehicle","32":"tag-western-michigan"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115504679866032573","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}