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

Chicago police say a mother has been charged with child endangerment after a gun in her second grader’s backpack by chance discharged at school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate

ByThe Related Press

18 May 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mother 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 said Wednesday.

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

Through the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son discovered the gun beneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on the city’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mom has a sound firearm owners identification card.

In accordance with police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, just earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Instances reported that prosecutors said in the course of the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good situation, police mentioned.

In an e-mail to folks, the school's principal mentioned the bullet "triggered some particles to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our college group and induced minor scrapes.” The varsity did not respond to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

A teacher then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors stated through the listening to.

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

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

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

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