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

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

ByThe Related Press

18 Could 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 unintentionally discharged at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police stated Wednesday.

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

Throughout the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son discovered the gun beneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on the city’s North Side on Tuesday. The mom has a legitimate firearm homeowners identification card.

In response to police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, simply earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Times reported that prosecutors stated during the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's stomach. The kid was taken to a hospital in good situation, police mentioned.

In an e mail to parents, the college's principal said the bullet "induced some debris to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our school community and caused 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 mentioned throughout the listening to.

The lady's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and never just positioned under the bed. But, he said, “This wasn't something she deliberate or something she did on her personal volition.”

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

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

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