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

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

ByThe Associated Press

18 Could 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 by chance discharged at school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police said Wednesday.

The 28-year-old girl appeared in court on Wednesday on three misdemeanor little one endangerment counts. A judge ordered her release from Prepare dinner County Jail on $1,000 bond.

In the course of the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son found the gun underneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on town’s North Side on Tuesday. The mom has a valid 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 Solar-Times reported that prosecutors mentioned through the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the kid's stomach. The kid was taken to a hospital in good condition, police stated.

In an e mail to folks, the school's principal said the bullet "prompted some debris to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our college group and caused minor scrapes.” The school did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A instructor then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors said during the listening to.

The girl's attorney, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not just positioned below the bed. However, he mentioned, “This wasn't something she deliberate or one thing she did on her own volition.”

Prepare 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 said.

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