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

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

ByThe Associated Press

18 Could 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mom has been charged with child endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack by chance discharged at school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police said Wednesday.

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

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

In accordance with police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, simply earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Instances reported that prosecutors stated during the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the child's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good condition, police stated.

In an e-mail to parents, the school's principal mentioned the bullet "precipitated some debris to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our college neighborhood and brought on minor scrapes.” The school did not reply to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

A trainer then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors stated through the listening to.

The lady's attorney, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never simply placed below the bed. However, he said, “This wasn't one thing she deliberate or one thing she did on her own volition.”

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

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

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