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

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

ByThe Associated Press

18 Could 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

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

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

Through the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son found the gun beneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on town’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mother has a sound firearm homeowners 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 Solar-Occasions reported that prosecutors said throughout the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the kid's abdomen. The child was taken to a hospital in good condition, police stated.

In an email to parents, the school's principal said the bullet "brought on some particles to ricochet in your child’s classroom, which hit a member of our college neighborhood and induced minor scrapes.” The school did not reply to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

A trainer then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors said during the hearing.

The lady's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and never just placed beneath the mattress. However, he stated, “This wasn't something she deliberate or something she did on her own volition.”

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

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

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