CHICAGO — Police announced on Tuesday the arrest of a 41-year-old suspect for the grisly murder of a 2-year-old boy whose remains were found scattered in a city lagoon last year.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said authorities have charged Kamel Harris, of Rockford, Ill., with first-degree murder and concealing a homicide. The charges stem from the killing of toddler Kyrian Knox. Harris became enraged after the boy went through an afternoon-long crying fit, police said.
The remains of Knox, who was decapitated, were found in the lagoon of a city park over Labor Day weekend 2015.
“Some incidents create a lasting memory,” said Johnson, a veteran Chicago cop who has experienced no shortage of disturbing moments in his long police career. “Last year on Labor Day weekend, 2-year-old Kyrian Knox became one of those memories.”
Nearly a year ago, police released the name of two adults — Harris and Danyelle Foggs — who were last seen caring for the boy. At the time, police said the couple, who took charge of the boy after his mother moved to Iowa, were uncooperative with investigators.
The boy’s mother as well as another family friend left their children with Harris, who was a friend of Kyrian’s father, while they got settled into new jobs in Iowa, authorities said. The other child was not physically harmed.
Cmdr. Kevin Duffin said investigators were able to break the case after finding biological evidence from Kyrian inside the suspect’s vehicle. Harris had insisted that the boy had never been in the car. Duffin said detectives also developed unspecified information from witnesses that provided them with critical information.
We promised we’d never give up on him and we havent. CPD detectives made an arrest in the murder & decapitation of 2 yr old Kyrian Knox
