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 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 youngster endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack accidentally discharged at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police stated Wednesday.

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

In the course of the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the woman's 8-year-old son found the gun underneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on the town’s North Aspect on Tuesday. The mom has a valid firearm owners identification card.

In keeping with police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, simply 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 floor and grazed the child's abdomen. The child was taken to a hospital in good condition, police mentioned.

In an email to oldsters, the school's principal stated the bullet "induced some debris to ricochet in your youngster’s classroom, which hit a member of our college group and brought on minor scrapes.” The varsity did not respond to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

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

The woman's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never just placed under the bed. But, he mentioned, “This wasn't something she deliberate or something she did on her personal volition.”

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

“This will not have been an intentional act, however it is a supremely negligent act,” he said.

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