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

Chicago police say a mother has been charged with youngster endangerment after a gun in her second grader’s backpack by chance discharged at 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 little one endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack by chance discharged in school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police stated Wednesday.

The 28-year-old lady appeared in courtroom on Wednesday on three misdemeanor youngster endangerment counts. A decide ordered her release from Prepare dinner County Jail on $1,000 bond.

During the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son discovered the gun underneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on the town’s North Side on Tuesday. The mom has a valid firearm owners identification card.

Based on police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, just before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Occasions reported that prosecutors stated throughout the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's abdomen. The kid was taken to a hospital in good situation, police mentioned.

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

A trainer then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors said during the listening to.

The woman's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and not simply placed beneath the bed. However, he said, “This wasn't something she deliberate or something she did on her own volition.”

Cook dinner County Judge 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, probably centimeters away, from a very completely different case and a very totally different tragedy.”