Gun in 8-year-old’s backpack goes off in school, mother charged

Chicago police say a 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

ByThe Associated Press

18 Might 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 accidentally discharged at school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police mentioned Wednesday.

The 28-year-old girl appeared in court on Wednesday on three misdemeanor youngster endangerment counts. A choose ordered her launch from Prepare dinner County Jail on $1,000 bond.

In the course of 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 School on the town’s North Side on Tuesday. The mom has a legitimate firearm house owners identification card.

In response to police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, simply before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Instances reported that prosecutors said in the course of the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good situation, police said.

In an e-mail to parents, the varsity's principal said the bullet "precipitated some particles to ricochet in your youngster’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty community and induced minor scrapes.” The college did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

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

The lady's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never just placed below the bed. However, he stated, “This wasn't something she planned or one thing she did on her own volition.”

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

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

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