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 by accident discharged at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate

ByThe Related Press

18 Might 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

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

The 28-year-old girl appeared in court on Wednesday on three misdemeanor child endangerment counts. A judge ordered her launch from Prepare dinner County Jail on $1,000 bond.

In the course of the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son found the gun beneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on the town’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mom has a sound firearm house owners identification card.

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

In an e mail to oldsters, the varsity's principal mentioned the bullet "brought on some particles to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our school neighborhood and prompted minor scrapes.” The school did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A trainer then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors stated throughout the hearing.

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

Cook dinner 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 mentioned.

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