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

Chicago police say a mom has been charged with child endangerment after a gun in her second grader’s backpack by accident discharged in school, 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 little one endangerment after a gun in her second grader's backpack by accident discharged in school, injuring a 7-year-old classmate, police said Wednesday.

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

In the course of the hearing, prosecutors alleged that the lady's 8-year-old son discovered the gun underneath her mattress 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.

Based on police, the backpack was within the boy's classroom when, just before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the gun discharged. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that prosecutors stated in the course of the hearing that the bullet ricocheted off the floor and grazed the kid's stomach. The kid was taken to a hospital in good situation, police said.

In an email to parents, the varsity's principal stated the bullet "caused some debris to ricochet in your baby’s classroom, which hit a member of our faculty community and brought about minor scrapes.” The school did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

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

The woman's legal professional, Rodger Clarke, acknowledged that the gun should have been locked up and not simply placed below the mattress. But, he mentioned, “This wasn't something she deliberate or something she did on her own volition.”

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

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