Gun in 8-year-old’s backpack goes off at 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 Could 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 at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police mentioned Wednesday.

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

Through the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son found 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 house owners identification card.

In accordance with police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, just before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that prosecutors said through the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the child's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good situation, police said.

In an e mail to parents, the college's principal stated the bullet "triggered some particles to ricochet in your child’s classroom, which hit a member of our school community and caused minor scrapes.” The varsity did not reply to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A instructor then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors mentioned throughout the hearing.

The girl's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and not simply positioned under the mattress. However, he stated, “This wasn't one thing she deliberate or something she did on her own volition.”

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

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

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