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

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

ByThe Related Press

18 Might 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mother has been charged with child 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 girl appeared in court on Wednesday on three misdemeanor little one endangerment counts. A judge ordered her release from Cook County Jail on $1,000 bond.

During the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the woman's 8-year-old son discovered the gun beneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on the town’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mom has a legitimate firearm owners identification card.

According to police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, simply before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that prosecutors mentioned during the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the kid's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good situation, police stated.

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

A trainer then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors mentioned throughout the hearing.

The girl's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not just placed beneath the mattress. However, he mentioned, “This wasn't one thing she deliberate or one thing she did on her own volition.”

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

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

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