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

Chicago police say a mother has been charged with baby endangerment after a gun in her second grader’s backpack accidentally discharged in school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate

ByThe Related Press

18 May 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 accident discharged at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police said Wednesday.

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

Throughout the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the woman's 8-year-old son found the gun beneath 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.

According to police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, simply earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Times reported that prosecutors stated throughout the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the child's abdomen. The child was taken to a hospital in good situation, police stated.

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

A instructor then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors said during the listening to.

The girl's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never just positioned underneath the mattress. But, he said, “This wasn't something she planned or something she did on her own volition.”

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

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

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