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

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

ByThe Related Press

18 Could 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

CHICAGO -- A Chicago 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, police mentioned Wednesday.

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

In the course of the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the woman's 8-year-old son found the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on town’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mom has a legitimate firearm owners identification card.

In line with police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, just before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Times reported that prosecutors mentioned through the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the kid's stomach. The kid was taken to a hospital in good situation, police mentioned.

In an email to folks, the college's principal mentioned the bullet "brought about some particles to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our college neighborhood and prompted minor scrapes.” The school did not 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 throughout the hearing.

The girl's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not just positioned beneath the bed. However, he mentioned, “This wasn't something she deliberate or something she did on her personal volition.”

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

“This may occasionally not have been an intentional act, but it is a supremely negligent act,” he said.

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