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

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

ByThe Associated Press

18 Might 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

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

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

In the course of the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son discovered the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on the city’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mother has a valid firearm owners identification card.

According to 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 said during the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the child's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good condition, police stated.

In an electronic mail to folks, the college's principal mentioned the bullet "brought about some particles to ricochet in your child’s classroom, which hit a member of our college community and prompted minor scrapes.” The varsity didn't reply to a request for comment on Wednesday.

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

The girl's attorney, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and never just positioned underneath the bed. But, he mentioned, “This wasn't one thing she deliberate or one thing she did on her own volition.”

Prepare dinner County Judge Michael Hogan was not impressed by that argument.

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

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