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

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

ByThe Related Press

18 Could 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 unintentionally discharged at school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police mentioned Wednesday.

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

In the course of the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the woman's 8-year-old son discovered the gun beneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on town’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mom has a valid firearm homeowners identification card.

In response to police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, just earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Occasions reported that prosecutors stated throughout the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's stomach. The kid was taken to a hospital in good condition, police said.

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

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

The woman's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not just placed below the mattress. However, he mentioned, “This wasn't something she deliberate or something she did on her personal volition.”

Prepare dinner County Choose 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 are inches away, presumably centimeters away, from a really totally different case and a really completely different tragedy.”