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

Chicago police say a mom has been charged with youngster endangerment after a gun in her second grader’s backpack accidentally discharged at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate

ByThe Associated Press

18 May 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

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

The 28-year-old woman appeared in courtroom on Wednesday on three misdemeanor child endangerment counts. A choose ordered her release from Cook dinner County Jail on $1,000 bond.

Throughout the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son found the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on the town’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mom has a sound firearm homeowners 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 stated in the course of the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the child'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 "brought about some debris to ricochet in your youngster’s classroom, which hit a member of our college community and induced minor scrapes.” The college did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A teacher then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors said through the hearing.

The girl's attorney, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and never simply positioned beneath the mattress. However, he said, “This wasn't something she deliberate or one thing she did on her own volition.”

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

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

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