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

Chicago police say a mom has been charged with child endangerment after a gun in her second grader’s backpack accidentally discharged at school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate

ByThe Related Press

18 May 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 accident discharged at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police said Wednesday.

The 28-year-old girl appeared in courtroom on Wednesday on three misdemeanor youngster endangerment counts. A choose ordered her release from Cook County Jail on $1,000 bond.

In the course of the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son discovered the gun underneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on the city’s North Side on Tuesday. The mom has a valid 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 through the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's abdomen. The child was taken to a hospital in good situation, police said.

In an e mail to oldsters, the varsity's principal mentioned the bullet "triggered some debris to ricochet in your youngster’s classroom, which hit a member of our college community and precipitated minor scrapes.” The school did not 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 stated during the listening to.

The woman's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and never just positioned underneath the mattress. However, he mentioned, “This wasn't something she deliberate or something she did on her personal volition.”

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

“This may not have been an intentional act, however it is a supremely negligent act,” he mentioned.

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