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 unintentionally discharged at school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate

ByThe Associated Press

18 May 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 accidentally discharged at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police mentioned Wednesday.

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

In the course of the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son found the gun beneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on town’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mother has a legitimate firearm owners identification card.

In response to police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, just earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Times reported that prosecutors stated throughout the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the child's stomach. The kid was taken to a hospital in good condition, police stated.

In an email to oldsters, the school's principal said the bullet "triggered some debris to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty group and prompted minor scrapes.” The college didn't reply to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

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

The girl's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not just positioned beneath the mattress. However, he said, “This wasn't one thing she planned or something she did on her own volition.”

Cook dinner County Decide 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're inches away, probably centimeters away, from a really totally different case and a very completely different tragedy.”