Ramsey County prosecutors have filed a gross misdemeanor child-endangerment charge against a woman whose gun was fired last week inside a St. Paul elementary school classroom.

Breanna Jolene Jones, 34, is accused of creating a situation where a child was likely to be killed or badly hurt because of the child’s access to a loaded gun.

According to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday:

TC, Jones’ 7-year-old nephew who lives with her and her husband, took a .38-caliber revolver from their bedside nightstand Nov. 17, put it in his backpack and carried it onto the school bus, where he handed it to another student, CF.

CF told police he was playing with the gun in class at Crossroads Elementary when another student asked to see it. He slid the gun under the table to the other boy, 8-year-old KNC, who spun the revolver’s cylinder and pulled the trigger, causing it to fire.

“The boy said the bullet almost hit his foot and scared him,” the complaint said.

KNC threw the gun under the table and ran out of the room.

The bullet hit the carpeted floor and slid across the room toward the teacher’s desk.

The teacher picked up the gun from underneath a table where students were sitting, wrapped it in cloth and took it to the principal’s office. The gun held four more live rounds.

Police said there were 27 students in the classroom at the time of the shooting. When they asked CF why he took the gun to class, he “just shrugged,” the complaint said.

Jones told police she had bought the gun “for home protection” three weeks before the Nov. 17 shooting. She has a permit for the gun, police learned.

She said she kept the gun stored underneath clothing inside the plastic, transparent table next to her bed. The table has no locking mechanism and Jones said she had no storage device for the gun.

Jones and her husband told police they never showed the gun to their nephew but he might have overheard them talking about it.

Jones was charged by summons and is due in court Dec. 16. She is not in custody.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said the shooting serves as an important reminder to parents who own guns.

“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,” he said.

Free gun locks are available at several locations in the county. They can be found at https://www.ramseycounty.us/gun-safety.