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 chance discharged in school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate

ByThe Associated Press

18 May 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mom has been charged with child endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack accidentally discharged in school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police said Wednesday.

The 28-year-old woman appeared in court docket on Wednesday on three misdemeanor child endangerment counts. A decide ordered her launch from Cook dinner 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 School on town’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mother has a sound firearm owners identification card.

In response to 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 said in the course of the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the kid's abdomen. The child was taken to a hospital in good condition, police stated.

In an e-mail to folks, the college's principal said the bullet "brought on some particles to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our school neighborhood and triggered minor scrapes.” The varsity didn't reply to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A teacher then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors mentioned throughout the hearing.

The lady's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not simply placed beneath the bed. However, he mentioned, “This wasn't something she planned or something she did on her own 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 mentioned.

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