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

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

ByThe Associated Press

18 Might 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 in school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police said Wednesday.

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

In the course of the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son found the gun underneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on the town’s North Side on Tuesday. The mother has a valid firearm homeowners identification card.

In line with police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, just before 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 stomach. The kid was taken to a hospital in good situation, police mentioned.

In an electronic mail to oldsters, the varsity's principal said the bullet "precipitated some particles to ricochet in your youngster’s classroom, which hit a member of our college group and brought about minor scrapes.” The varsity didn't reply to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A teacher then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors mentioned through the hearing.

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

Cook County Choose 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 said.

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