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

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

ByThe Related Press

18 Could 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

CHICAGO -- A Chicago 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, police stated Wednesday.

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

During the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the woman's 8-year-old son found the gun underneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on town’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mother has a legitimate firearm owners identification card.

According to police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, just before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Times reported that prosecutors said in the course of the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the child's abdomen. The kid was taken to a hospital in good condition, police mentioned.

In an electronic mail to folks, the school's principal mentioned the bullet "triggered some particles to ricochet in your youngster’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty neighborhood and precipitated minor scrapes.” The school did not reply to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

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

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

Prepare dinner County Decide Michael Hogan was not impressed by that argument.

“This may increasingly not have been an intentional act, however it is a supremely negligent act,” he mentioned.

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