Gun in 8-year-old’s backpack goes off at 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 in school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate

ByThe Associated Press

18 Could 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mom has been charged with little one endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack accidentally discharged at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police mentioned Wednesday.

The 28-year-old girl appeared in court on Wednesday on three misdemeanor child endangerment counts. A judge ordered her release from Prepare 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 Faculty on town’s North Side on Tuesday. The mother has a legitimate firearm house owners identification card.

In line with police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, simply before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Occasions reported that prosecutors said in the course of the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the child's abdomen. The kid was taken to a hospital in good condition, police said.

In an e mail to oldsters, the college's principal stated the bullet "triggered some debris to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty group and precipitated minor scrapes.” The college did not reply to a request for comment on Wednesday.

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

The girl's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and never just placed beneath the mattress. But, he stated, “This wasn't something she planned or one thing she did on her personal volition.”

Prepare 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're inches away, presumably centimeters away, from a really totally different case and a very totally different tragedy.”