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

Chicago police say a mom has been charged with little one endangerment after a gun in her second grader’s backpack by chance discharged at 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 little one endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack by chance discharged in school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police mentioned Wednesday.

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

Through 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 the town’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mother has a sound firearm homeowners identification card.

Based on police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, simply earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Instances reported that prosecutors mentioned in the course of the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the child's abdomen. The child was taken to a hospital in good condition, police said.

In an electronic mail to parents, the school's principal mentioned the bullet "brought about some debris to ricochet in your child’s classroom, which hit a member of our school group and induced minor scrapes.” The school didn't 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 mentioned in the course of the hearing.

The lady's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and never just positioned beneath the bed. However, he said, “This wasn't one thing she planned or one thing she did on her personal volition.”

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

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

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