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

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

ByThe Related Press

18 Might 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mom 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, police said Wednesday.

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

During the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son found the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on the city’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mother has a valid firearm house owners identification card.

In keeping 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 through the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the kid's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good situation, police stated.

In an electronic mail to parents, the varsity's principal mentioned the bullet "prompted some debris to ricochet in your child’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty group and prompted minor scrapes.” The college did not reply to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

A trainer then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors said through the hearing.

The woman's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and never just positioned underneath the mattress. But, he stated, “This wasn't something she planned or one thing she did on her own volition.”

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

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

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