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

Chicago police say a 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

ByThe Associated Press

18 Could 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mom has been charged with child endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack accidentally discharged at school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police mentioned Wednesday.

The 28-year-old girl appeared in courtroom on Wednesday on three misdemeanor little one 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 girl's 8-year-old son discovered the gun underneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on town’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mother has a valid firearm homeowners identification card.

Based on police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, simply before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Instances reported that prosecutors mentioned during the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the child's stomach. The kid was taken to a hospital in good condition, police mentioned.

In an email to oldsters, the varsity's principal mentioned the bullet "prompted some debris to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty community and precipitated minor scrapes.” The varsity didn't respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A instructor then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors said through the listening to.

The girl's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never just positioned underneath the bed. However, he stated, “This wasn't one thing she deliberate or something she did on her personal volition.”

Prepare dinner County Judge 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 said.

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