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

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

ByThe Related Press

18 Might 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

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

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

In the course of the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son found the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on town’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mom has a sound firearm 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-Occasions reported that prosecutors mentioned in the course of the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the child's abdomen. The child was taken to a hospital in good situation, police mentioned.

In an e-mail to oldsters, the college's principal said the bullet "induced some debris to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our college group and precipitated minor scrapes.” The varsity did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A instructor then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors stated through the hearing.

The girl's attorney, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not just placed below the bed. But, he said, “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 not have been an intentional act, however it's a supremely negligent act,” he said.

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