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

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

ByThe Related Press

18 May 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

CHICAGO -- A Chicago 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, police mentioned Wednesday.

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

Throughout the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son discovered the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on town’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mom has a valid firearm owners identification card.

In response to police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, simply earlier than 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 floor and grazed the child's stomach. The kid was taken to a hospital in good situation, police said.

In an e-mail to parents, the school's principal said the bullet "precipitated some particles to ricochet in your child’s classroom, which hit a member of our college group and prompted minor scrapes.” The college did not respond to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

A teacher 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 attorney, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never 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 Decide Michael Hogan was not impressed by that argument.

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

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