Gun in 8-year-old’s backpack goes off at school, mom charged

Chicago police say a mom has been charged with child endangerment after a gun in her second grader’s backpack by accident discharged at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate

ByThe Related Press

18 Could 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mother has been charged with baby endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack unintentionally discharged at school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police said Wednesday.

The 28-year-old girl appeared in court on Wednesday on three misdemeanor youngster endangerment counts. A choose ordered her release from Prepare dinner County Jail on $1,000 bond.

Through the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son discovered the gun beneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on the town’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mother has a legitimate firearm house owners identification card.

In line with police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, just earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Times reported that prosecutors stated in the course of the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the kid's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good situation, police said.

In an e mail to parents, the college's principal said the bullet "induced some debris to ricochet in your child’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty neighborhood and prompted minor scrapes.” The school didn't reply to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A instructor then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors stated in the course of the listening to.

The lady's attorney, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and not simply placed beneath the bed. However, he mentioned, “This wasn't something she deliberate or one thing she did on her own volition.”

Cook County Judge Michael Hogan was not impressed by that argument.

“This will likely not have been an intentional act, however it's a supremely negligent act,” he said.

He continued: “We are inches away, possibly centimeters away, from a really completely different case and a very totally different tragedy.”