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

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

ByThe Related Press

18 May 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mom has been charged with youngster endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack accidentally discharged at school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police stated Wednesday.

The 28-year-old girl appeared in court docket 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 girl's 8-year-old son discovered the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on the city’s North Side on Tuesday. The mother has a sound firearm homeowners identification card.

Based on police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, simply earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Instances reported that prosecutors stated in the course of the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the kid's stomach. The kid was taken to a hospital in good condition, police stated.

In an e mail to oldsters, the college's principal said the bullet "precipitated some debris to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our college community and prompted minor scrapes.” The varsity didn't reply 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 throughout the listening to.

The woman's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not simply positioned beneath the bed. But, he mentioned, “This wasn't one thing she planned or one thing she did on her personal volition.”

Prepare dinner County Decide 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 mentioned.

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