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

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

ByThe Associated Press

18 Could 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mother has been charged with child endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack accidentally discharged in school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police said Wednesday.

The 28-year-old woman appeared in court on Wednesday on three misdemeanor youngster endangerment counts. A judge ordered her launch 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 discovered the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on the city’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mother has a valid firearm house owners identification card.

Based on police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, simply before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Occasions reported that prosecutors mentioned during the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's abdomen. The kid was taken to a hospital in good condition, police said.

In an e mail to folks, the college's principal mentioned the bullet "triggered some particles to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our school group and brought on minor scrapes.” The varsity didn't respond to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

A instructor then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors mentioned during the listening to.

The girl's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and not simply placed beneath the mattress. But, he said, “This wasn't something she planned or something she did on her own volition.”

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

“This may not have been an intentional act, but it is a supremely negligent act,” he stated.

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