DA: No charge in forgotten gun case

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah woman won’t be charged with reckless endangerment after leaving a loaded gun on a baby changing table in a suburban Salt Lake City aquarium bathroom, authorities said Monday.

The misdemeanor charge punishable by up to a year in jail doesn’t apply because the woman didn’t consciously intend to put people in danger by leaving the weapon behind, said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill.

She told police she put the .380-caliber pistol on the folded-up changing table to use the bathroom at the Living Planet Aquarium July 10, but forgot it while chasing after her children after they crawled under the stall door. Another mother found the weapon when she went to change her newborn baby, and patrons were frustrated when police originally said they didn’t plan to press charges.

“It was a very close call, but at the end of the day it’s not about what we feel emotionally, it’s about what the law requires us to prove,” Gill said. The weapon had a round in the chamber and the safety off.

The case exposes a shortfall in state law, Gill said. He said there’s no charge they can prosecute if a weapon is accidentally left where it could hurt someone.

“I think this demonstrates there is a gap, and I think everybody would recognize that even being negligent with a weapon whose sole purpose is very inherently dangerous, we ought to be concerned about that,” Gill said.

City prosecutors could still file a lesser charge, like a citation for trespassing by bringing a weapon to the aquarium despite a posted gun ban.