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

Chicago police say a mom has been charged with youngster 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 May 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mom has been charged with youngster endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack unintentionally discharged at school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police stated Wednesday.

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

Throughout the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son discovered the gun beneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on the town’s North Side on Tuesday. The mother has a sound firearm owners identification card.

In response to police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, just before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Instances reported that prosecutors stated throughout the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the kid's abdomen. The child was taken to a hospital in good condition, police stated.

In an electronic mail to folks, the varsity's principal mentioned the bullet "induced some particles to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty group and triggered minor scrapes.” The varsity didn't respond to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

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

The woman's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and not just placed under the bed. But, he mentioned, “This wasn't something she planned or one thing she did on her personal volition.”

Cook dinner County Choose 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 totally different case and a very totally different tragedy.”