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

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

ByThe Related Press

18 Could 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

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

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

During the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son discovered the gun beneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on the city’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mom has a legitimate firearm house owners identification card.

In accordance with police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, just before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Occasions reported that prosecutors said through the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the child's abdomen. The kid was taken to a hospital in good condition, police said.

In an electronic mail to parents, the college's principal mentioned the bullet "caused some debris to ricochet in your youngster’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty group and induced minor scrapes.” The college didn't reply to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A trainer then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors said in the course of the listening to.

The girl's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not just placed beneath the bed. However, he stated, “This wasn't something she planned or something she did on her own volition.”

Cook 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 stated.

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