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

Chicago police say a mom 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 Associated Press

18 Could 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mother has been charged with youngster endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack by chance discharged at school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police stated Wednesday.

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

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

In response to police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, simply before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Occasions reported that prosecutors stated in the course of the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's abdomen. The kid was taken to a hospital in good condition, police stated.

In an e-mail to folks, the school's principal mentioned the bullet "prompted some particles to ricochet in your youngster’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty neighborhood and precipitated minor scrapes.” The school didn't respond to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

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

The woman's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and not simply placed beneath the bed. However, he stated, “This wasn't something she deliberate or something she did on her own volition.”

Prepare dinner County Decide Michael Hogan was not impressed by that argument.

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

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