Police report sheds light on accidental death outside Kowloon

A Milton man who suffered a fatal stab wound in the parking lot of Kowloon Restaurant in Saugus earlier this month was known to wear a knife around his neck, and investigators found a lanyard with an empty sheath near the spot where he fell, a police report confirms.

Patrick Kenney Jr., 42, was injured in an apparent accident outside Kowloon shortly after 9 p.m. on Dec. 2, ​​Essex District Attorney Paul F. Tucker’s office previously said. According to the DA’s office, investigators do not believe anyone else was involved.

A newly obtained report from the Saugus Police Department describes the incident as an “unattended/accidental death” and states there was no crime.

According to the report, Kenney and several others arrived at Kowloon on a party bus that night to celebrate a friend’s 40th birthday. Investigators noted that Kenney and his group didn’t seem to be involved in any physical or verbal fights at the restaurant. A few people on the party bus reportedly told police that Kenney was known to wear a “lanyard style knife” around his neck, though they weren’t certain whether he had been wearing it that night. 

In the report, a Saugus police officer who was on a paid detail at Kowloon said a woman alerted him around 9:08 p.m. that a man had fallen in the parking lot. The officer found Kenney lying face-down on the pavement, within about 100 feet of the restaurant’s main entrance. 

“I checked to see if he was conscious and responsive to which I just heard what sounded like mumbled moaning,” the officer wrote. Kenney’s pulse was “detected but weak,” he added.

As he attempted to roll Kenney onto his side, the officer saw the black handle of a knife sticking out of the man’s chest, according to the report. Kenney was rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he died shortly after 10 p.m. 

Outside Kowloon, investigators found cash, a bank card with Kenney’s name, a hat and shirt, and “what appeared to be a lanyard style black neck worn knife sheath.”

The sheath, a detective noted, was empty. 

In his obituary, Kenney’s family noted that the father of two young children “approached life the way he played football — full speed ahead with fierce determination and infectious joy in life that he shared with family, friends, teammates, and coworkers.” 

They described his renewed appreciation for life after overcoming a series of strokes that began when he was 37.

“After the strokes I really think he appreciated things and felt like he had a second chance,’’ his mother, Donna, said in the obituary. 

Kenney — a former Boston College High School and University of Maine football player who worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency — experienced “the greatest blessings of his life” with the birth of twins Ava and Patrick III in 2021, his family said. 

“He was a great father,” his wife, Lauren, said in the tribute. “I feel like he wanted to live life to the fullest after that because he knew tomorrow wasn’t promised.”

Abby Patkin

Staff Writer

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.

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