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

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

ByThe Related Press

18 Could 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

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

The 28-year-old woman appeared in court on Wednesday on three misdemeanor little one endangerment counts. A judge 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 found the gun underneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on the town’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mom has a sound firearm house owners identification card.

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

In an email to folks, the college's principal said the bullet "triggered some particles to ricochet in your youngster’s classroom, which hit a member of our school community and brought on minor scrapes.” The school didn't respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

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

The lady's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not simply placed below the mattress. But, he said, “This wasn't one thing she deliberate 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, but it is a supremely negligent act,” he stated.

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