Gun in 8-year-old’s backpack goes off at 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 Associated Press

18 Could 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mother has been charged with baby endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack by accident 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 judge ordered her launch from Cook dinner County Jail on $1,000 bond.

During the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son discovered the gun beneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on the city’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mother has a valid 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 Solar-Times reported that prosecutors mentioned in the course of the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the kid's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good condition, police mentioned.

In an e-mail to oldsters, the school's principal stated the bullet "induced some debris to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty group and caused minor scrapes.” The school did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A teacher then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors mentioned through the hearing.

The lady's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and never just positioned beneath the bed. However, he mentioned, “This wasn't one thing she planned or one thing she did on her personal volition.”

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

“This will likely 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 really totally different tragedy.”