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

Chicago police say a mother has been charged with child endangerment after a gun in her second grader’s backpack by chance 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 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 court docket on Wednesday on three misdemeanor youngster endangerment counts. A decide ordered her release from Prepare dinner County Jail on $1,000 bond.

During 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 School on town’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mom has a valid firearm house owners identification card.

In line with police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, simply before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that prosecutors mentioned in the course of the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the kid's stomach. The kid was taken to a hospital in good situation, police stated.

In an e mail to folks, the school's principal said the bullet "caused some particles to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty community and caused minor scrapes.” The college did not respond to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

A instructor then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors stated during the listening to.

The lady's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not simply positioned underneath the mattress. However, he stated, “This wasn't something she deliberate or something she did on her own volition.”

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

“This will likely not have been an intentional act, but it is a supremely negligent act,” he mentioned.

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