St. Paul aunt charged after 7-year-old heads to school with her gun

A St. Paul woman was charged Tuesday with child endangerment for allowing her nephew access to a loaded handgun that went off last week inside a city elementary school.

Charging documents say Breanna Jolene Jones, 34, had the .38-caliber revolver in a plastic, see-through bedside stand without a trigger lock or a lock on the drawer. Her 7-year-old nephew allegedly brought the gun onto a school bus, where he gave it to another student. That student then allegedly brought the weapon into a Crossroads Elementary school classroom in his backpack.

The complaint says a third student in the classroom was handling the gun when it went off into the floor. No one was hurt in the incident.

Police say the nephew wanted to bring the gun to school to show his peers.

Jones was summoned to appear in court Dec. 16 on the gross misdemeanor charge.

"This incident serves as an important reminder to parents: If you own a gun, it is not only your responsibility to lock up your gun and keep it stored safely away from children, it is the law," Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said in a statement.