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

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

ByThe Associated Press

18 May 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

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

The 28-year-old woman appeared in courtroom on Wednesday on three misdemeanor baby endangerment counts. A judge ordered her release from Cook 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 mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on the town’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mom has a valid firearm owners identification card.

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

In an e-mail to parents, the college's principal mentioned the bullet "prompted some particles to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our school neighborhood and caused minor scrapes.” The varsity didn't reply to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A trainer then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors mentioned throughout the listening to.

The girl's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never just placed below the mattress. However, he said, “This wasn't something she deliberate or something she did on her own volition.”

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

“This may not have been an intentional act, but it's a supremely negligent act,” he stated.

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