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

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

ByThe Associated Press

18 Could 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mother has been charged with child endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack by chance 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 youngster endangerment counts. A decide ordered her release from Cook dinner County Jail on $1,000 bond.

Throughout the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son discovered the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on town’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mom has a legitimate firearm house owners 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-Occasions reported that prosecutors mentioned throughout the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the child's abdomen. The kid was taken to a hospital in good condition, police stated.

In an e mail to parents, the varsity's principal stated the bullet "induced some debris to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our college neighborhood and induced minor scrapes.” The college didn't respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A trainer then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors said throughout the listening to.

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

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

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

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