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

Chicago police say a mother has been charged with child 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 May 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

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 woman appeared in court docket on Wednesday on three misdemeanor little one endangerment counts. A choose ordered her launch from Prepare dinner County Jail on $1,000 bond.

Through the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son discovered the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on the town’s North Side on Tuesday. The mom has a legitimate firearm homeowners identification card.

In accordance with police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, just earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Occasions reported that prosecutors mentioned throughout the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the child's abdomen. The child was taken to a hospital in good condition, police said.

In an e mail to folks, the school's principal stated the bullet "prompted some particles to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our college group and precipitated minor scrapes.” The school didn't reply to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A teacher then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors mentioned throughout the hearing.

The lady's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never just placed underneath the bed. But, he stated, “This wasn't something she planned or something she did on her personal volition.”

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

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

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