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

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

ByThe Associated Press

18 Might 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 unintentionally discharged at school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police mentioned Wednesday.

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

During the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the woman's 8-year-old son found the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on the town’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mother has a legitimate firearm house owners identification card.

According to police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, simply earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Times reported that prosecutors said in the course of the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's abdomen. The child was taken to a hospital in good situation, police stated.

In an electronic mail to oldsters, the college's principal mentioned the bullet "precipitated some debris to ricochet in your youngster’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty neighborhood and prompted minor scrapes.” The school did not reply to a request for comment on Wednesday.

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

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

Prepare dinner County Judge 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 said.

He continued: “We are inches away, possibly centimeters away, from a very different case and a very totally different tragedy.”