Gun in 8-year-old’s backpack goes off in 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 Could 2022, 23:06

• 2 min read

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

The 28-year-old woman appeared in court on Wednesday on three misdemeanor little one endangerment counts. A choose ordered her release from Cook County Jail on $1,000 bond.

During the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the girl's 8-year-old son discovered the gun beneath her bed and took it to Walt Disney Magnet Faculty on town’s North Facet on Tuesday. The mother has a legitimate firearm homeowners identification card.

According to police, the backpack was in the boy's classroom when, simply before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Solar-Times reported that prosecutors mentioned during the listening to that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's abdomen. The child was taken to a hospital in good situation, police mentioned.

In an electronic mail to folks, the varsity's principal said the bullet "precipitated some debris to ricochet in your little one’s classroom, which hit a member of our school neighborhood and caused minor scrapes.” The school did not respond to a request for touch upon Wednesday.

A instructor then grabbed the backpack and gave it to safety officers who discovered a Glock 19 handgun inside, prosecutors mentioned throughout the hearing.

The woman's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not just positioned below the bed. However, he stated, “This wasn't something she planned or one thing she did on her personal volition.”

Prepare dinner County Choose Michael Hogan was not impressed by that argument.

“This will likely not have been an intentional act, but it's a supremely negligent act,” he mentioned.

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