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

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

ByThe Associated Press

18 Might 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

CHICAGO -- A Chicago 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, police mentioned Wednesday.

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

Throughout the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the woman's 8-year-old son discovered the gun beneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on the town’s North Side on Tuesday. The mother has a sound firearm homeowners identification card.

In keeping with police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, just earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Occasions reported that prosecutors mentioned through the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good situation, police mentioned.

In an e-mail to oldsters, the school's principal said the bullet "triggered some particles to ricochet in your youngster’s classroom, which hit a member of our school community and triggered minor scrapes.” The varsity did not reply 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 woman's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and never just placed below the bed. But, he mentioned, “This wasn't something she planned or something she did on her own volition.”

Prepare dinner County Judge 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, probably centimeters away, from a very completely different case and a very completely different tragedy.”