A Tennessee mother is facing first-degree murder charges after authorities say she fatally shot a 20-year-old man she discovered hiding beneath her teenage daughter’s bed.
According to an arrest affidavit, Memphis police responded to a shooting at a home on Travis Road around 1:45 a.m. on July 16. When officers arrived, they found 20-year-old Rodderius Morton lying in the front yard with a gunshot wound to the back of his head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police say 36-year-old Kendra Scott admitted to finding Morton inside her home, allegedly telling officers, “I saw a dude under my kid’s bed,” before adding, “I did what I had to do.”
Investigators learned that a juvenile girl, identified by Scott’s attorney as her 13-year-old daughter, had reportedly invited Morton into the home around 1:20 a.m. The girl told police she became frightened when her mother arrived home holding a firearm and shouting, “Who’s at my house?” She also told investigators that Scott had previously warned she would shoot any boy she found inside the home.
According to the affidavit, Scott discovered Morton hiding beneath the bed and ordered him to leave. Authorities allege that as Morton exited the house and reached the front porch, Scott shot him in the back of the head. A neighbor who heard the gunshot told police he saw Scott standing outside with a handgun, reportedly saying, “I shot him, I shot him.”
Scott has been charged with first-degree murder and employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony. She is being held without bond as the case moves through the court system.
Scott’s attorney, Blake Ballin, described the incident as “the worst nightmare of any parent of a 13-year-old girl” and said one of the central issues in the case will be whether her actions were reasonable under the circumstances. Prosecutors, however, will argue the evidence as the criminal case proceeds through the Tennessee courts.
The case has sparked widespread debate online, with opinions divided over whether the shooting was an act of parental protection or an unlawful use of deadly force.
