A six-year-old boy was taken into custody by the police after he shot a teacher at Richneck Elementary School, Virginia on Friday, Police Chief Steve Drew said.
Drew told journalists that the 30-year-old female teacher was shot inside an elementary classroom at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia after an argument between the teacher and the student, carrying the firearm. He added that “this was not an accidental shooting.”
“The individual is a 6-year-old student,” Drew said. “We have been in contact with our commonwealth attorney and some other entities to help us best get services to this young man.”
No students were injured in the afternoon shooting, according to police.
School Superintendent in shock
The superintendent of the public school George Parker said he was “disheartened” and “in shock” after a first-grade student intentionally shot his teacher, leaving her with “life-threatening injuries”.
He called for increased gun control saying: “We need the community’s support, continued support, to make sure that guns are not available to youth and I’m sounding like a broken record today, because I continue to reiterate that: that we need to keep the guns out of the hands of our young people.”
Richneck elementary will be closed till at least Monday to address “the mental health of staff and students”, George Parker said.
Teacher is recovering
The Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones said the teacher is recovering. Zwerner’s recovery was “trending in a positive direction” but she’s still in critical condition after sustaining life-threatening injuries.
Her alma mater, James Madison University, identified the teacher as Abby Zwerner.
“All of us at James Madison University are deeply saddened by the reported tragic shooting of JMU alumna Abby Zwerner,” the University President Jonathan R. Alger said in a statement posted on the school’s official Facebook page.
The statement further read that MU would support those affected by the incident now and in the coming weeks.
The authorities, on the other hand, struggle to understand how a child so young could be involved in a school shooting while the police and school officials are looking into what led to the shooting to take.
The United States witnessed several high-profile mass shootings and a rise in gun violence last year prompting law enforcement officials and lawmakers to push for more gun control measures. In 2022, President Joe Biden in June signed into law the first major gun safety legislation passed in the country in decades.