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

Chicago police say a mother has been charged with baby 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 baby endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack unintentionally discharged at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police said Wednesday.

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

Throughout the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son discovered the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on the city’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mom has a legitimate firearm owners identification card.

Based on police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, simply earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Occasions reported that prosecutors said in the course of the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good situation, police said.

In an email to oldsters, the varsity's principal mentioned the bullet "caused some debris to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our college neighborhood and precipitated minor scrapes.” The college didn't 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 during the hearing.

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

Cook County Judge Michael Hogan was not impressed by that argument.

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

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