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

Chicago police say a mother has been charged with child endangerment after a gun in her second grader’s backpack unintentionally 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 accident discharged in school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police said Wednesday.

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

Through 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 College on town’s North Side on Tuesday. The mother has a sound firearm house owners identification card.

In line with police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, simply before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Times reported that prosecutors stated throughout the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the child's abdomen. The child was taken to a hospital in good condition, police stated.

In an e-mail to parents, the school's principal stated the bullet "brought on some debris to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our school community and precipitated minor scrapes.” The college did not 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 stated through the hearing.

The woman's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never just positioned below the mattress. However, he stated, “This wasn't something she planned or something she did on her own volition.”

Cook dinner County Judge 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 stated.

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