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

Chicago police say a mom 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 Related Press

18 Might 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 mentioned Wednesday.

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

In the course of the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son found the gun underneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on the city’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mother has a valid firearm owners identification card.

In keeping with police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, simply before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Occasions reported that prosecutors mentioned through 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 mentioned.

In an e-mail to folks, the varsity's principal mentioned the bullet "induced some debris to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty community and prompted minor scrapes.” The college didn't respond 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 mentioned during the hearing.

The lady's attorney, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never simply placed under the bed. However, he stated, “This wasn't one thing she deliberate or something she did on her personal volition.”

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

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

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