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

Chicago police say a mom has been charged with baby 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 May 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mom has been charged with little one endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack by chance 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 release from Prepare dinner County Jail on $1,000 bond.

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

Based on police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, just before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Times reported that prosecutors said during the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's stomach. The kid was taken to a hospital in good situation, police said.

In an email to folks, the college's principal stated the bullet "caused some debris to ricochet in your child’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty group and brought about minor scrapes.” The varsity did not reply to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

A trainer then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors said throughout the hearing.

The woman's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and not just placed below the mattress. But, he mentioned, “This wasn't something she planned or one thing she did on her personal volition.”

Prepare dinner County Choose Michael Hogan was not impressed by that argument.

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

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