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

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

Through the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son found the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on the city’s North Side on Tuesday. The mother has a legitimate firearm homeowners identification card.

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

In an e mail to oldsters, the varsity's principal mentioned the bullet "caused some particles to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our college community and prompted minor scrapes.” The varsity 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 stated throughout the hearing.

The woman's attorney, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not simply placed beneath the mattress. But, he stated, “This wasn't something she deliberate or something she did on her personal volition.”

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

“This will likely not have been an intentional act, however it is a supremely negligent act,” he stated.

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