The Chiefs’ offensive coordinator left the team’s training camp on Sunday as his son faces up to 33 years in prison if convicted of shooting his mother.
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid provided an update to reporters about Mia Bieniemy, the wife of lead assistant Eric Bieniemy. Mia was allegedly shot multiple times by the couple’s son, Elijah Bieniemy, inside their home in Virginia.
“She’s doing great,” Reid told reporters on Wednesday. “She’s doing better and great from where she was. [She’s] out of the ICU unit and making progress, so we’re happy about that.”
Mia Bieniemy, 57, remains hospitalized in Virginia. Eric Bieniemy left the Chiefs’ training camp on Sunday to return to Virginia to be by his wife’s side as she continues to recover. There is no timetable for his return as the team prepares for the upcoming NFL season.
“Eric’s a big part of this,” Reid said. We love having him here, but it’s important that he takes care of business and everybody knows that. Eric will be back soon enough to jump in there and do his thing, but he’s got to take care of that first.”
On Sunday, news reports from Loudoun County confirmed that a woman had been shot multiple times inside her home. According to ESPN, the woman was later identified as Mia Bieniemy, and she had suffered gunshot wounds to her chest and her arm. “Good Morning America” shared 911 audio from the shooting, where a dispatcher said Mia Bieniemy had been shot and was “unable to breathe.”
Elijah Bieniemy, 27, was charged with malicious wounding, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and discharge of a firearm inside a dwelling, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office. He is being held without bond at a detention center in Loudoun County, according to police.
According to Virginia law, malicious wounding is defined as “shoot, stab, cut, or wound any person or by any means cause him bodily injury, with the intent to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill.” He is due in court on Thursday for a motion hearing and on August 31 for a preliminary hearing.
If found guilty on all charges, Elijah Bieniemy could face up to 33 years in prison.
For now, the Chiefs are less concerned about Bieniemy returning to work and more about his family.
“I just want to make sure she’s taken care of — and Eric [Bieniemy III], too,” Reid said of Mia and her oldest son, who has cerebral palsy. “[Eric Bieniemy’s] got the other part of that that he’s got to sort out. Let him take care of that.
“We stay in touch with him and keep him abreast of everything that’s going on. He’s got the tape that he can watch in whatever spare time he’s got there.”