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 accidentally discharged at school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate

ByThe Associated Press

18 Might 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

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

The 28-year-old girl appeared in court on Wednesday on three misdemeanor little one endangerment counts. A decide ordered her launch from Prepare dinner County Jail on $1,000 bond.

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

In keeping 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-Times reported that prosecutors stated during the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's abdomen. The kid was taken to a hospital in good situation, police said.

In an electronic mail to folks, the college's principal mentioned the bullet "brought about some debris to ricochet in your child’s classroom, which hit a member of our college group and triggered minor scrapes.” The college did not respond 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 stated in the course of the listening to.

The girl's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and never just placed under the bed. But, he stated, “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 occasionally not have been an intentional act, however it is a supremely negligent act,” he said.

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