Mom Charged After Son Brought Her Gun to His Second Grade Class, Where It Discharged in Backpack and Grazed Student

A Chicago mother has been charged with child endangerment after her second-grade son took a gun to school, which later discharged in his backpack and grazed a classmate.

Per the Associated Press, 28-year-old mother Tatanina Kelly appeared in court this week on three misdemeanor child endangerment counts. Prosecutors alleged that her son—who the Chicago Sun-Times says is 8 and the Tribune says is 7—discovered her Glock 19 handgun underneath her bed. He later took the gun to Walt Disney Magnet School, where it went off in his bag.

As Sun-Times reported, prosecutors said the bullet ricocheted off the floor, and grazed another child’s abdomen. In an email sent to parents this week, the school’s principal said the firearm “caused some debris to ricochet in your child’s classroom, which hit a member of our school community and caused minor scrapes.” The student who was hit was taken to a nearby hospital in stable condition. According to the school, a teacher passed the backpack to a security officer, who discovered the Glock 19 which Kelly legally owned. 

“We are inches away, possibly centimeters away, from a very different case and a very different tragedy,” said Judge Michael Hogan in court this week. Kelly’s defense attorney Rodger Clarke admitted that the gun “probably should have been locked up,” but highlighted that the mother has no criminal record and would not repeat the same mistake. “This wasn’t something she planned or something she did of her own volition,” Clarke added. “How the kid knew there was a gun under the bed is beyond me. … It’s not like she went out and did something purposefully that violated that law.”

In response, Hogan replied, “This may not have been an intentional act, but it is a supremely negligent act.”