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

Chicago police say a mother has been charged with child endangerment after a gun in her second grader’s backpack unintentionally discharged at college, 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 youngster endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack unintentionally discharged at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police stated Wednesday.

The 28-year-old woman appeared in court docket on Wednesday on three misdemeanor youngster endangerment counts. A judge ordered her launch from Cook County Jail on $1,000 bond.

In the course of the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the woman's 8-year-old son discovered the gun beneath 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 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-Instances reported that prosecutors said 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 condition, police said.

In an electronic mail to parents, the school's principal mentioned the bullet "triggered some debris to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our college community and prompted minor scrapes.” The varsity didn't reply to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A instructor then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors mentioned in the course of the listening to.

The woman's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and not simply placed below the mattress. But, he said, “This wasn't something she deliberate or something she did on her personal volition.”

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

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

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