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

Chicago police say a mom has been charged with little one endangerment after a gun in her second grader’s backpack unintentionally discharged at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate

ByThe Related Press

18 Might 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

CHICAGO -- A Chicago 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, police stated Wednesday.

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

Throughout the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the woman's 8-year-old son discovered the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on the city’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mom has a valid firearm homeowners identification card.

In keeping with police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, just earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Occasions reported that prosecutors stated through the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the child's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good condition, police mentioned.

In an e mail to parents, the college's principal said the bullet "induced some debris to ricochet in your child’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty neighborhood and prompted minor scrapes.” The varsity did not reply to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

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

The girl's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and not just placed under the mattress. But, he stated, “This wasn't something she planned or something she did on her personal volition.”

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

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

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