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

Chicago police say a mom has been charged with youngster endangerment after a gun in her second grader’s backpack by accident discharged at college, injuring a 7-year-old classmate

ByThe Associated Press

18 Might 2022, 23:06

• 2 min learn

CHICAGO -- A Chicago mom 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, police stated Wednesday.

The 28-year-old woman appeared in court on Wednesday on three misdemeanor little one endangerment counts. A judge ordered her release from Cook dinner 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 Faculty on the town’s North Side on Tuesday. The mother has a valid firearm owners identification card.

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

In an email to folks, the varsity's principal mentioned the bullet "caused some debris to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our college neighborhood and triggered minor scrapes.” The school did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

A trainer then grabbed the backpack and gave it to security officers who found a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors stated through the listening to.

The lady's lawyer, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun ought to have been locked up and never simply positioned beneath the bed. But, he mentioned, “This wasn't something she deliberate or one thing she did on her own volition.”

Prepare dinner 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're inches away, possibly centimeters away, from a really completely different case and a really completely different tragedy.”