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

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

ByThe Related 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 college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police stated Wednesday.

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

During the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son found the gun beneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on the city’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mom has a valid firearm homeowners identification card.

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

In an email to oldsters, the varsity's principal said the bullet "precipitated some particles to ricochet in your child’s classroom, which hit a member of our school group and brought about minor scrapes.” The varsity didn't respond to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

A teacher then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors mentioned through the hearing.

The lady's attorney, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and not simply placed underneath the mattress. But, he mentioned, “This wasn't something she deliberate or something she did on her own volition.”

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

“This may increasingly 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 very different case and a really completely different tragedy.”