Cowboys official reported Marshawn Kneeland text, asked for welfare check - ESPN

On the night Dallas Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland died, the team's director of security, Cable Johnson, called law enforcement to ask for a welfare check on Kneeland and to tell police Kneeland had sent a text saying he didn't want to go to jail.

«He sent out some group texts that are concerning — probably mental health — but the group texts seemed to be saying goodbye — made some statement about not able to go to prison or to jail,» Johnson told Plano police dispatch, according to audio obtained by ESPN through a public records request.

Kneeland died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound last week. Police found his body in the early morning last Thursday after he had evaded officers during a pursuit and fled on foot. Police have not said what prompted the pursuit.

Johnson made the call about an hour after police started pursuing Kneeland's car.

According to a statement from Frisco police last week, officers responded to a call from the Texas Department of Public Safety at 10:39 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 5, seeking help locating a car that had evaded police.

Highway surveillance video obtained by ESPN — via a public records request seeking footage related to Kneeland — shows a car that appears to be speeding northbound on the Dallas North Tollway, in some instances pursued by a police vehicle. The car then appears to exit the highway onto a parallel access road and turn left onto an overpass to make a U-turn south.

Moments later, the video shows the car traveling southbound about one block from The Star — the Cowboys' sprawling 91-acre headquarters — where the car then appears to crash into another vehicle at 10:40 p.m. Texas DPS have confirmed that Kneeland crashed into a pickup truck.

Kneeland fled the