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

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

ByThe Associated Press

18 Might 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

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

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

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

In keeping with police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, simply earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Occasions reported that prosecutors said throughout 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 mentioned.

In an electronic mail to parents, the school's principal mentioned the bullet "triggered some particles to ricochet in your child’s classroom, which hit a member of our college community and brought about minor scrapes.” The college didn't respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A teacher then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors mentioned during the hearing.

The lady's lawyer, 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 deliberate or something 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, but it is a supremely negligent act,” he mentioned.

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