(Wayne Carrington)
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The mom of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher will raise his orphaned infant girl in the Long Island home where he grew up, her relatives disclosed yesterday as they struggled to figure out what made him snap.
Belcher’s West Babylon mom, Cheryl Shepherd, had been in Kansas City to help him and his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, with their daughter, Zoe, now 3 months old, when she watched as her son fatally shot Perkins early Saturday. She called 911 as her son fled the house.
Police arrived at the home at 7:50 a.m. on Saturday morning and found Perkins fatally shot on the floor of the master bathroom, according to a report released on Monday.
Belcher then committed suicide by shooting himself in the head in front of his coach and general manager in a parking lot outside the team’s stadium.
“She’s taking it as anyone else would’ve taken it,” Belcher’s cousin Eric Oakes, 20, said of Shepherd.
“She just lost a son. We’re all coming together,” added Oakes, who lives with Shepherd in the renovated house where and Belcher grew up.
Police sources said Belcher shot Perkins nine times with one gun and used another on himself. Police confirmed that both guns were legally registered.
Cops hoped to provide a full investigative report on Tuesday.
Belcher, 25, and Perkins, 22, reportedly had a troubled relationship and argued frequently.
A friend said Perkins moved out with the baby and stayed with relatives and friends for several weeks before reconciling with Belcher days before Thanksgiving.
“It doesn’t seem that that would be the end of their story,” said Brianne York, 21, a friend of Perkins. “It just seems like if things didn’t work out, they would have gone their separate ways. I would never have thought that this would be how it ended.”
Their problems may have been compounded by Belcher’s daily drinking and popping of painkillers, as well as a head injury he suffered in a recent game, one pals told the sports- news Web site Deadspin.
A team source confirmed to The Post that Belcher did sit out a game last month because of a blow to the head.
Chiefs Chairman Clark Hunt said Belcher was “a player who had not had a long concussion history.”
Belcher was one of six current or former NFL players who have killed themselves in the past two years.
Cops have said he and Perkins quarreled for the last time Saturday morning after Perkins returned late from a Trey Songz concert.
Belcher shot her before speeding off in his Bentley to the Chiefs’ practice facility, where GM Scott Pioli and coach Romeo Crennel tried to talk sense into him as waved his gun.
But moments later, Belcher stepped away from the men, raised the gun to his head and ended his life.
The Chiefs nevertheless played a home game yesterday against the Carolina Panthers — and won,, breaking an eight-game losing streak.
Panthers coach Ron Rivera greeted Crennel midfield with a hug, and the Chiefs presented Crennel with the game ball.
“It’s been an incredibly difficult 24 hours for our family and our entire organization,” Hunt said before the game. “We have so many guys on our team and our coaching staff who are really, really hurting.”
Players wore no arm bands for Belcher, but his jersey hung in his locker as a makeshift shrine.
His teammates took the field amid a national debate over whether the game should have been canceled.
Teammate Brandon Siler said he was glad it wasn’t, because Belcher “would have wanted it that way.”
Running back Jamaal Charles, married to Perkins’ cousin, declined to comment.
Crennel would not go into detail about the suicide, saying only, “It wasn’t a pretty sight.”
He instead praised his players for coming together.
“You overcame a lot, you stuck together as a team like we talked about . . . helped each other . . . family and friends. You relied on those people or you relied on your faith to help get you through this,” he told them in a postgame locker-room speech.
“And we got through it . . . in a grand way because everyone made a contribution, everybody helped. And that’s what a team is about.”
Meanwhile, Perkins’ relatives trickled in and out of the couple’s home.
Red and white carnations sat outside.
“I think she was home alone a lot,” said Kristen Van Meter, 31, a neighbor who went to community college with the victim. “He was kind of quiet. He would come and go.”
She said there’d be noisy parties when he was there.
In West Babylon, pals and relatives adorned Belcher’s family home with mementos of his athletic career.
Wearing a Chiefs jersey with Belcher’s number, 59, on it, Oakes said his cousin was his role model.
“That’s the only person I wanted to be like. A role model, basically my father. He’s the person who made me play football,” said Oakes, who played running back for West Babylon HS.
Belcher’s teammates said they would establish a foundation for his baby.
Additional reporting by Kenneth Garger