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 in 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 baby endangerment counts. A decide ordered her launch from Cook dinner County Jail on $1,000 bond.

Throughout the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son found the gun beneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on the town’s North Side on Tuesday. The mother has a legitimate firearm owners identification card.

In keeping with police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, just earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that prosecutors said throughout the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the child's abdomen. The kid was taken to a hospital in good situation, police said.

In an e-mail to folks, the school's principal mentioned the bullet "brought about some particles to ricochet in your child’s classroom, which hit a member of our school neighborhood and brought about minor scrapes.” The school 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 lady's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never simply positioned beneath the mattress. However, he said, “This wasn't one thing she planned or one thing she did on her personal volition.”

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

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