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

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

ByThe Associated Press

18 Might 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mother has been charged with baby endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack unintentionally 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 little one endangerment counts. A choose ordered her launch from Prepare dinner County Jail on $1,000 bond.

In the course of the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son found the gun underneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on the city’s North Side on Tuesday. The mom has a sound firearm house owners identification card.

According to police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, simply earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Times reported that prosecutors stated during the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the kid's abdomen. The kid was taken to a hospital in good condition, police said.

In an e mail to parents, the school's principal mentioned the bullet "induced some debris to ricochet in your child’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty neighborhood and precipitated minor scrapes.” The school did not respond to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

A teacher then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors said throughout the hearing.

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

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

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

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