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

18 Might 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 college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police said Wednesday.

The 28-year-old woman appeared in court docket on Wednesday on three misdemeanor little one endangerment counts. A choose ordered her launch 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 underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on the city’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mom has a sound firearm homeowners identification card.

In accordance with police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, just earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Times reported that prosecutors said in the course of the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good situation, police stated.

In an e mail to oldsters, the college's principal said the bullet "prompted some particles to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our school community and brought on minor scrapes.” The school didn't reply 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 through the hearing.

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

Prepare dinner County Decide Michael Hogan was not impressed by that argument.

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

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