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

Chicago police say a 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

ByThe Associated Press

18 May 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

CHICAGO -- A Chicago 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, police stated Wednesday.

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

In the course of the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son found the gun beneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on town’s North Side on Tuesday. The mother has a sound firearm owners identification card.

In accordance with police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, simply earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Occasions reported that prosecutors mentioned in the course of the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good situation, police said.

In an electronic mail to parents, the varsity's principal said the bullet "triggered some particles to ricochet in your child’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty community and precipitated minor scrapes.” The varsity didn't reply to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

A instructor then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors stated in the course of the hearing.

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

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

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

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