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

Chicago police say a mother has been charged with child endangerment after a gun in her second grader’s backpack by accident discharged at school, 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 baby endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack accidentally discharged in school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police said Wednesday.

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

Throughout the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the woman's 8-year-old son discovered the gun beneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on the city’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mom has a legitimate firearm house owners identification card.

In response to police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, just earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Instances reported that prosecutors mentioned during the listening to 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 e mail to oldsters, the varsity's principal said the bullet "brought about some particles to ricochet in your child’s classroom, which hit a member of our college neighborhood and prompted minor scrapes.” The school did not respond to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

A trainer then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors stated through the listening to.

The lady's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not just positioned below the mattress. However, he said, “This wasn't something she deliberate or one thing she did on her own volition.”

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

“This may increasingly 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 totally different case and a really different tragedy.”