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 accidentally discharged at school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate

ByThe Associated Press

18 May 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 at school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police stated Wednesday.

The 28-year-old lady appeared in courtroom on Wednesday on three misdemeanor youngster endangerment counts. A judge ordered her launch from Prepare dinner County Jail on $1,000 bond.

In the course of the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son discovered the gun beneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on the city’s North Side on Tuesday. The mother has a sound firearm homeowners identification card.

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

In an e mail to folks, the school's principal stated the bullet "triggered some particles to ricochet in your youngster’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty community and brought on minor scrapes.” The college did not reply to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

A instructor then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors said during the hearing.

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

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

“This will likely not have been an intentional act, however it's a supremely negligent act,” he said.

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