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

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

ByThe Related Press

18 May 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mother has been charged with youngster endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack accidentally discharged at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police mentioned Wednesday.

The 28-year-old woman appeared in court on Wednesday on three misdemeanor youngster endangerment counts. A decide ordered her launch from Cook County Jail on $1,000 bond.

In the course of the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the woman's 8-year-old son discovered the gun beneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on town’s North Side on Tuesday. The mom has a valid firearm house 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-Occasions reported that prosecutors stated through the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the child's abdomen. The kid was taken to a hospital in good condition, police said.

In an e-mail to parents, the college's principal mentioned the bullet "precipitated some particles to ricochet in your child’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty group and triggered minor scrapes.” The school 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 listening to.

The woman's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and not just placed under the bed. However, he said, “This wasn't something she deliberate or something she did on her personal volition.”

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

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

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