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Boy Was Killed, Dismembered Over Milk Allergy: Chicago Police

(CBS) -- A Rockford man has been arrested and charged in the grisly murder of a 2-year-old boy whose dismembered body was found in the Garfield Park lagoon more than a year ago, Chicago police announced Tuesday.

Kyrian Knox's severed head, hands, and feet were found in the West Side location on Labor Day weekend of 2015, but the body parts were not identified until two months later, after a DNA match was made.

Forty-one-year-old Kamel Harris faces one felony count each of first-degree murder, concealment of a homicidal death and dismembering a human body.

Harris had been asked by the boy's mother to watch the child, authorities said.

"The major break in the case was the fact that he had denied that the baby had been inside his vehicle," Chicago Police Cmdr. Kevin Duffin said at a news conference. "Once we took the vehicle with a search warrant, we tore out the carpeting and recovered the baby's blood in the vehicle."

Police say the child, who was lactose intolerant, began crying after he was given milk to drink. That led to the murder, dismemberment and attempt to conceal the death, they say.

Kyrian's grandmother, Cameshia Harris, was incredulous at the motive police shared.

"And that's a reason to kill a baby?" she tells WBBM's Steve Miller. "And dismember him? And throw him away like he was nothing?"

Cameshia Harris says she was "so pleased" that Kamel Harris had been arrested. But, she said, "it just brings it all back."

Police say they took this case personally because of the age of the victim.

There was no immediate information about a court date for Harris.

 

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