Gun in 8-year-old’s backpack goes off at school, mom 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 in school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate

ByThe Associated Press

18 May 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

CHICAGO -- A Chicago 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, police said Wednesday.

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

Throughout the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son found the gun beneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on the town’s North Side on Tuesday. The mother has a sound firearm house owners identification card.

In response to police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, just before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Instances reported that prosecutors mentioned in the course of the listening to 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 email to folks, the varsity's principal said the bullet "induced some debris to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty community and caused minor scrapes.” The varsity did not respond to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

A teacher then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors stated through the listening to.

The woman's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never simply positioned beneath the mattress. However, he said, “This wasn't one thing she deliberate or something she did on her personal volition.”

Cook County Judge Michael Hogan was not impressed by that argument.

“This may occasionally not have been an intentional act, however it's a supremely negligent act,” he stated.

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