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

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

ByThe Associated Press

18 May 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mom 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 lady appeared in court docket on Wednesday on three misdemeanor youngster endangerment counts. A judge ordered her launch from Prepare dinner County Jail on $1,000 bond.

Through the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son discovered the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on town’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mom has a valid firearm house owners identification card.

Based on police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, simply before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Instances reported that prosecutors said throughout the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the child's abdomen. The child was taken to a hospital in good condition, police mentioned.

In an electronic mail to oldsters, the college's principal said the bullet "caused some debris to ricochet in your youngster’s classroom, which hit a member of our school community and precipitated minor scrapes.” The varsity did not respond to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

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

The woman's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never simply positioned under the mattress. However, he stated, “This wasn't one thing she deliberate or something she did on her personal volition.”

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

“This will likely not have been an intentional act, however it is a supremely negligent act,” he mentioned.

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