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

Chicago police say a mother has been charged with baby 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 Might 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 by chance discharged in school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police said Wednesday.

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

During the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son found the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on the city’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mother has a valid firearm homeowners identification card.

In accordance with police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, just before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Instances reported that prosecutors stated through the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's abdomen. The child was taken to a hospital in good situation, police stated.

In an electronic mail to folks, the school's principal mentioned the bullet "precipitated some particles to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our college community and precipitated minor scrapes.” The college didn't respond to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

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

The girl's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never simply placed beneath the bed. But, he stated, “This wasn't something she deliberate or something she did on her personal volition.”

Cook County Decide Michael Hogan was not impressed by that argument.

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

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