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

Chicago police say a mother has been charged with little one endangerment after a gun in her second grader’s backpack accidentally discharged at college, 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 little one endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack unintentionally discharged in school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police stated Wednesday.

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

In the course of the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the woman's 8-year-old son discovered the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on the town’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mother has a legitimate firearm homeowners identification card.

In accordance with police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, simply before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that prosecutors mentioned through the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the kid's abdomen. The kid was taken to a hospital in good condition, police mentioned.

In an electronic mail to oldsters, the varsity's principal mentioned the bullet "precipitated some particles to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty neighborhood and prompted minor scrapes.” The varsity didn't reply to a request for comment on Wednesday.

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

The lady's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not just positioned below the mattress. But, he mentioned, “This wasn't something she planned or one thing she did on her own volition.”

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

“This will not have been an intentional act, but it is a supremely negligent act,” he stated.

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