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

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

ByThe Associated 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 unintentionally discharged in school, 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 judge ordered her launch from Cook County Jail on $1,000 bond.

In the course of the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son found the gun underneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on town’s North Side on Tuesday. The mom has a valid firearm house owners identification card.

In line with police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, simply before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Instances reported that prosecutors mentioned throughout 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 situation, police stated.

In an e-mail to oldsters, the school's principal mentioned the bullet "precipitated some debris to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our school neighborhood and brought on minor scrapes.” The college did not 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 stated during the hearing.

The woman's attorney, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not simply placed underneath the mattress. But, he stated, “This wasn't something she planned or something she did on her own volition.”

Prepare 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 are inches away, possibly centimeters away, from a very different case and a very different tragedy.”