The shooting death of former NFL quarterback Steve McNair raised questions today 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.
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 today. "We don't need to look on the situation at this time (but) on the fact we just lost a great member of society."
