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

Chicago police say a mom has been charged with child endangerment after a gun in her second grader’s backpack accidentally discharged in school, 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 little one endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack by accident discharged in school, 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 judge ordered her launch from Cook dinner County Jail on $1,000 bond.

During the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the woman's 8-year-old son discovered the gun underneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on the town’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mom has a sound firearm homeowners identification card.

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

In an e-mail to oldsters, the college's principal said the bullet "triggered some debris to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty community and caused minor scrapes.” The varsity didn't respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A trainer then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors said throughout the listening to.

The woman's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not just placed below the mattress. But, he mentioned, “This wasn't something she deliberate or one thing she did on her personal volition.”

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

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

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