The pistol apparently used to kill former Ravens quarterback Steve McNair and his girlfriend Saturday was bought by the 20-year-old woman less than two days earlier, Nashville, Tenn., police said Monday.
Authorities stressed that they have not concluded that Sahel Kazemi killed the retired football star and then turned the gun on herself. Police are awaiting the results of a ballistics analysis, including gunshot residue tests, and tracking down details of the pair's final hours.
"We are beginning to make some headway into trying to understand what took place," police spokesman Don Aaron said at a news conference. "Do we fully understand what took place? No."
FOR THE RECORD - Due to incomplete information from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, a story Tuesday about the investigation into the death of former Ravens quarterback Steve McNair misstated federal gun law. While a licensed gun dealer cannot sell a handgun to anyone under 21, private citizens can sell handguns to those 18 or older.
The Baltimore Sun regrets the error.
An autopsy determined that McNair, 36, was shot three times from more than three feet away and once in the temple at close range, according to the Tennessean newspaper. Kazemi was shot once in the forehead, with the semiautomatic gun ending up beneath her body.
Sunday night, detectives interviewed Kazemi's ex-boyfriend, Keith Norfleet, whose stepmother said he had hoped to win her back right up to her death. Norfleet, 24, was "very cooperative" and was allowed to go home afterward, the police spokesman said.
As the investigation proceeded Monday, McNair's former teammates and coaches grappled with his death. A married father of four, he played for the Ravens in 2006 and 2007. Jeff Fisher, who coached him for 11 seasons with the Tennessee Titans, said he didn't want McNair's name tainted by the way his life ended.
"We all have the right to judge, and my hope is that Steve will be remembered ... for what he did and what he meant to this organization," Fisher said. "My hope is that we can get past the circumstances and let those go, and dwell and stay focused on the type of player and person that he was."
The still-murky circumstances of the deaths puzzled some close to the case. "Nobody thinks it makes any sense that this girl did it," said Trudy Norfleet, Keith Norfleet's stepmother. "She'd been at our house a few times for holidays, dinners. She was a very quiet girl, didn't have a whole lot to say."
Norfleet and Kazemi met in Jacksonville, Fla., when he was 20 and she was 16. Their dating spanned four rocky years, punctuated by arguments and periodic breakups. Although Norfleet knew Kazemi and McNair had been dating for several months, he and Kazemi kept seeing each other, Trudy Norfleet said.
