Mother in Chicago accused of shooting dead her own son over missing memory card

Fallon Harris allegedly shot her 12-year-old son after he failed to retrieve a lost memory card

12-year-old Kaden Ingram was shot dead, allegedly by his mother (Screengrab/ CBS Chicago)

A mother in Chicago has been charged with murder after she allegedly shot her 12-year-old son multiple times over a missing memory card.

Fallon Harris, 37, has been accused of shooting her son Kaden Ingram, an incident that was partly captured on security cameras inside their south Chicago home on Saturday morning, reported news channel WLS-TV.

Speaking after her arrest on Sunday, prosecutors said Ms Harris had confronted her son about a secure digital (SD) memory card which had gone missing.

Footage showed Ms Harris pointing a gun at her sun and demanding the memory card, prosecutors said. Ms Harris allegedly shot Kaden, injuring him, when he failed to produce the card.

Cook County state’s attorney Eugene Wood said audio evidence revealed the boy was “conscious and crying” after the first shot. The first shot was not captured on video, but on audio, according to prosecutors.

Ms Harris then took a phone call as her son lay injured on the kitchen floor and returned to again demand the memory card, after which she shot her son a second time, prosecutors alleged. This time, video showed Ms Harris shooting her son, they said.

Kaden was later declared dead at the University of Chicago Medical Centre.

Ms Harris admitted to two family members over the phone that she had shot her son as he had not returned the memory card, prosecutors said, and the family members alerted the police. The mother also admitted to shooting her son to investigators, they said.

The family told investigators the mother had been displaying paranoid behavior and met a therapist a day before the shooting.

The 7th grader’s father Lavell Ingram told the Chicago Sun-Times that his estranged wife was struggling with mental illness while describing her as a “loving mom”.

“We didn’t know that this was going to transpire,” Mr Ingram told the newspaper. “We had told her to get help. I guess it finally reached its boiling point... She loved [Kaden] more than anything in the world.

“His mom is a loving mom. She loved him more than she loved anything in the world,” Mr Ingram said. “People need to know that mental illness is real.”

Talking about his grief, Mr Ingram said it was hard for him to express in words and Kaden “was everything a father could want in a child”.

Following her arrest, Ms Harris was crying, said prosecutors. “Can I talk to my momma?” she had said.

Ms Harris could face a life sentence if found guilty.