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

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

ByThe Associated Press

18 Might 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mother has been charged with little one endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack accidentally discharged in school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police stated Wednesday.

The 28-year-old girl appeared in court docket on Wednesday on three misdemeanor baby 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 found the gun beneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on the city’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mother has a sound firearm homeowners identification card.

In response to police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, just before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Occasions reported that prosecutors said during the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the kid's abdomen. The kid was taken to a hospital in good situation, police said.

In an e-mail to parents, the school's principal mentioned the bullet "caused some particles to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our college neighborhood and prompted minor scrapes.” The college did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A instructor then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors stated in the course of 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 bed. However, he stated, “This wasn't one thing she planned or something she did on her personal volition.”

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

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

He continued: “We are inches away, probably centimeters away, from a really totally different case and a really totally different tragedy.”