Gun in 8-year-old’s backpack goes off at school, mom 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 at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate

ByThe Related Press

18 May 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mom has been charged with child endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack unintentionally discharged at school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police mentioned Wednesday.

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

In the course of the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son discovered the gun beneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on town’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mom has a sound firearm homeowners identification card.

Based on police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, just earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Instances reported that prosecutors stated during the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the child's stomach. The kid was taken to a hospital in good situation, police said.

In an electronic mail to folks, the varsity's principal mentioned the bullet "prompted some particles to ricochet in your youngster’s classroom, which hit a member of our school group and precipitated minor scrapes.” The college did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

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

The lady's attorney, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not just positioned below the mattress. But, he said, “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 will not have been an intentional act, however it is a supremely negligent act,” he said.

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