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

Chicago police say a mother 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

ByThe Related Press

18 May 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

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

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

Through the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son discovered the gun beneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on the city’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mother has a valid firearm homeowners identification card.

In accordance with police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, simply before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Instances reported that prosecutors mentioned in the course of the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the kid's abdomen. The kid was taken to a hospital in good condition, police stated.

In an e-mail to folks, the varsity's principal said the bullet "caused some debris to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our college group and precipitated minor scrapes.” The varsity didn't reply to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A teacher then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors said in the course of the listening to.

The girl's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never just placed under the mattress. But, he said, “This wasn't one thing she planned or one thing she did on her personal volition.”

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

“This may increasingly not have been an intentional act, but it's a supremely negligent act,” he stated.

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