Memphis, Tennessee mother Kendra Scott has been granted a $100,000 bond after being accused of fatally shooting a 20-year-old man allegedly hiding under her 13-year-old daughter’s bed. Elsewhere, the man’s former teacher says he was a special needs.
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According to an affidavit obtained by WREG, police officers responded to a report of a shooting at a home in the 3000 block of Travis Road. The call came in at around 1:45 a.m. last Thursday (July 16). When Shelby County Sheriff’s Office officers arrived at the scene, the found a man dead near the front porch. Officers then spoke with the 36-year-old Memphis mother.
She told them, “I saw a dude under my kids’ bed and I did what I had to do.” Police later identified the victim as Rodderius Morton. According to his former teacher, he “was soft-spoken, respectful, and had learning disabilities.”
Memphis Mother Allegedly Shoots 20-Year-Old Man In Head After Finding Him Under 13-Year-Old Daughter’s Bed
Police then spoke with Scott’s daughter. She told them she invited Morton into the home, through the back door, around 1 a.m. and that her mother came home around 1:30 a.m. The teen said before her mother walked in, she was knocking loudly and banging on the front door, asking, “Who’s at my house?.” The teen told police she was scared of her mother because she had a gun in her hand and visibly angry. She also said that her mother previously warned her, “If I see a boy in the house, then I will put a hole in his a**.”
When the teen finally let her mother inside the home, she allegedly found Morton hiding underneath her daughter’s bed. Scott repeatedly told him, “Get out of my house, b*tch.” As Morton got up to leave, he and Scott got into a verbal argument. As Morton, unarmed, was exiting onto the front porch, Scott allegedly shot him in the back of the head.
Police also spoke with a neighbor who told them he heard banging. When he came outside his home, he saw a man short near the front porch. The neighbor also told police he saw Scott standing in the front yard. He said she was holding a gun and repeatedly saying, “I shot him, I shot him.” After questioning, police arrested the Memphis mother and charged her with first-degree murder and employment of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
On Monday morning (July 20), a judge granted bond, setting it at $100,000. The judge also ordered Scott not to have any contact with the victim’s family. She is due back in court next month, on August 3.
Former Teacher Says 20-Year-Old Murdered Man Accused Of Hiding Under 13-Year-Old Girl’s Bed Was Special Needs
On Monday, WREG also spoke with Morton’s former teacher, Robin Perkins. She told the outlet, “He was special needs, and I was his special needs teacher.” Perkins also told the outlet things could have been handled differently and not ended with Morton’s death. She described her former student as “soft-spoken and respectful.”
Perkins said she was shocked by this case, adding:
“Unbelievable, very, very hurt. Because the young man that I knew, most people, based off this story they don’t know the young man like I did. I do not condone his actions of going and mingling with a 13-year-old. However, when you’re not 20, what do you expect? And then I found out last night from his sister that no one knew that he was gone from the house.”
Perkins said she believes Morton through the teen was older and that he didn’t understand the law. She said, “I just wish she never would’ve shot him. There were so many opportunities for her to stop and think. There’s so many different ways that this could’ve had a different outcome, call the police. If you got a gun, hold him there until the police get there.”
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