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

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

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

In the course of the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son discovered the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on the town’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mom has a legitimate firearm house owners identification card.

Based on police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, simply earlier than 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Instances reported that prosecutors said throughout the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the child's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good condition, police mentioned.

In an email to folks, the school's principal stated the bullet "precipitated some particles to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our school community and brought about minor scrapes.” The school did not reply to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

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

The girl's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not simply placed below the bed. But, he stated, “This wasn't one thing she deliberate or something she did on her own volition.”

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

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

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