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

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

ByThe Related Press

18 Might 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 accidentally discharged at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police said Wednesday.

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

Throughout the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son found the gun beneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet College on the city’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mother has a sound firearm owners identification card.

In line with police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, just before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Instances reported that prosecutors said during the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good condition, police mentioned.

In an email to oldsters, the college's principal mentioned the bullet "caused some particles to ricochet in your youngster’s classroom, which hit a member of our school community and induced 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 discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors stated throughout the hearing.

The woman's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not just positioned beneath the bed. However, he stated, “This wasn't something she deliberate or something she did on her own volition.”

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

“This may increasingly not have been an intentional act, however it's a supremely negligent act,” he said.

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