A South Side woman accused of fatally shooting her young son during an apparent mental health emergency in 2021 was acquitted of insanity-murder charges earlier this month, according to court documents.
Fallon C. Harris, 40, was acquitted of six counts of first-degree murder by Judge Thomas J. Byrne on Sept. 19 in connection with the death of her son Kaden Harris-Ingram, according to court records. A mental disability sentencing report filed with the court and signed by Byrne found Harris incompetent to stand trial in a criminal case.
The judge also ordered the former city worker transferred to a secure Illinois Department of Human Services facility for inpatient evaluation and treatment, records show. Harris, formerly of the South Chicago neighborhood, remained in the Cook County Jail as of Saturday night.
Harris had been in custody since September 2021 and was charged the day after prosecutors said she confronted her 12-year-old son at gunpoint at their home in the 8000 block of South Bennett Avenue.
Harris, formerly a $45.90-an-hour worker for the city’s Department of Transportation, allegedly demanded the boy tell her the location of a digital storage disk she had removed from her vehicle the previous night and shot him when he did not turn the item over.
After officers arrived at the home, Harris answered the front door and said she shot her son before leading them to the silver revolver she had used, prosecutors said during her bail hearing.
The woman’s family later told the Tribune that Harris had been suffering from mental health issues shortly before the shooting, and displayed “strange, erratic behaviors” leading up to the shooting.
“Her son was her best friend,” Harris’ estranged husband Lavell Ingram told the Tribune. “She would never do anything to hurt this baby. There were a lot of mental issues going on, and we couldn’t recognize it. And by the time we recognized it, it was too late.”