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

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

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

Throughout the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the woman's 8-year-old son discovered the gun beneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on the city’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mother has a sound firearm owners identification card.

In response to police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, simply before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that prosecutors said during the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the child's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good condition, police said.

In an email to parents, the school's principal stated the bullet "induced some particles to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our school group and precipitated minor scrapes.” The varsity did not reply to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

A teacher then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors mentioned through the listening to.

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

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

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

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