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

Chicago police say a mother has been charged with baby endangerment after a gun in her second grader’s backpack accidentally discharged at school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate

ByThe Related Press

18 Could 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mother has been charged with little one endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack by chance discharged in school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police mentioned Wednesday.

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

During the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son discovered the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on town’s North Side on Tuesday. The mom has a sound firearm owners identification card.

According to police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, simply before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Times reported that prosecutors said in the course of the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the child's abdomen. The child was taken to a hospital in good situation, police stated.

In an electronic mail to oldsters, the college's principal mentioned the bullet "precipitated some particles to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty neighborhood and brought on minor scrapes.” The college didn't reply to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A trainer then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors stated throughout the listening to.

The woman's attorney, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never just placed underneath the mattress. However, he stated, “This wasn't something she planned or something she did on her personal volition.”

Prepare dinner County Choose Michael Hogan was not impressed by that argument.

“This may not have been an intentional act, however it is a supremely negligent act,” he said.

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