A Memphis mom is charged with first-degree murder for shooting a man hiding under her minor daughter’s bed.
The incident happened around 1:30 a.m. on July 16 in the 3000 block of Travis Road in Memphis, the NY Post reports.
Kendra Scott, 36, allegedly found Rodderius Morton, 20, hiding under her 13-year-old daughter’s bed. She ordered him to come out from under the bed. Then she allegedly shot him on the front porch as he was leaving.
Scott reportedly told police she “saw a dude under my kids’ bed,” and she “did what I had to do”.
Police say Scott’s daughter invited Morton to the house around 1 a.m. while her mother was not at home.
Scott arrived home and immediately suspected someone was in her house. She started pounding on the bedroom door and yelling, “Who’s at my house?!” the affidavit states.
Scott had said that if she “sees a boy in my house I will put a hole in his a*s,” the daughter later told police. The minor said she was afraid to open the door because her mother was holding a gun.
The teen eventually let her mother into the room, where Scott found Morton hiding under her bed.
“Get out of my house b**ch,” Scott screamed, while following Morton out the front door. Her daughter and a neighbor heard a single gunshot.
The neighbor told police he saw an armed Scott standing over a man’s body on the lawn. Morton was shot once in the back of the head.
Scott is charged with first-degree murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, according to the Memphis Police Department.
Experts say the shooting does not qualify under Tennessee’s Castle Doctrine, which allows a person to use deadly force if they have a “reasonable belief that there is an imminent danger of death, serious bodily injury, or grave sexual abuse.”
?#BREAKING: A mother in Memphis TN has been charged with m*rder after she sh0t a 20-year-old man she found hiding under her CHILD'S BED at 1:45 a.m.
When the mother was asked why she did it, she said:
"I did what I had to do." pic.twitter.com/POsNkoAzLO
— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) July 18, 2026