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

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

ByThe Related Press

18 Might 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mother has been charged with child 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 girl appeared in courtroom on Wednesday on three misdemeanor child endangerment counts. A choose ordered her launch from Cook County Jail on $1,000 bond.

In the course of the listening to, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son found the gun underneath her mattress and took it to Walt Disney Magnet School on the town’s North Side on Tuesday. The mother has a legitimate firearm owners identification card.

In accordance with 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 throughout the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the ground and grazed the kid's stomach. The child was taken to a hospital in good condition, police stated.

In an email to parents, the school's principal stated the bullet "induced some debris to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our college neighborhood and brought about minor scrapes.” The college didn't reply to a request for comment on 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 lady's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never just placed below the mattress. However, he mentioned, “This wasn't something she planned or something she did on her personal volition.”

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

“This may 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 very completely different case and a very totally different tragedy.”