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 unintentionally discharged at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate

ByThe Related Press

18 Could 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

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

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

During 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 town’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mom has a sound firearm owners 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 Sun-Times reported that prosecutors mentioned during the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the kid's stomach. The kid was taken to a hospital in good situation, police mentioned.

In an e mail to oldsters, the school's principal stated the bullet "brought about some particles to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our college community and induced minor scrapes.” The varsity didn't reply to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

A teacher then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors stated in the course of the hearing.

The woman's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and never just placed under the mattress. However, he stated, “This wasn't something she deliberate or one thing she did on her own volition.”

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

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

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