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

Chicago police say a mother has been charged with youngster endangerment after a gun in her second grader’s backpack by chance 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 accidentally discharged at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police said Wednesday.

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

During the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son found the gun beneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on the town’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mother has a valid firearm homeowners identification card.

Based on police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, just before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Instances reported that prosecutors mentioned during 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 stated.

In an electronic mail to folks, the college's principal mentioned the bullet "precipitated some particles to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our college community and prompted minor scrapes.” The college didn't respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A instructor then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors mentioned in the course of the listening to.

The lady's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and never simply positioned under the mattress. But, he stated, “This wasn't one thing she deliberate or something she did on her personal volition.”

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

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

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