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

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

ByThe Related Press

18 May 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

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

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

During 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 School on the town’s North Side on Tuesday. The mom has a sound firearm owners identification card.

In response to police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, just earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Occasions reported that prosecutors said through the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the child's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good condition, police said.

In an e mail to oldsters, the varsity's principal said the bullet "triggered some debris to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty 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 security officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors mentioned during the listening to.

The woman's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never just placed beneath the mattress. But, he stated, “This wasn't one thing she planned or one thing she did on her own volition.”

Cook County Decide Michael Hogan was not impressed by that argument.

“This may occasionally not have been an intentional act, but it's a supremely negligent act,” he stated.

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