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

ByThe Related Press

18 Could 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

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

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

During the listening to, 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 Aspect on Tuesday. The mother has a legitimate firearm homeowners identification card.

In line with police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, just earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Occasions reported that prosecutors stated in the course of the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the kid's abdomen. The child was taken to a hospital in good situation, police stated.

In an email to folks, the varsity's principal said the bullet "induced some debris to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our school group and precipitated minor scrapes.” The varsity did not reply to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

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

The girl's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not simply placed beneath the mattress. However, he said, “This wasn't one thing she deliberate or one thing she did on her personal volition.”

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

“This will not have been an intentional act, however it's a supremely negligent act,” he stated.

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