A 6-year-old boy was taken into custody by police Friday after the boy fired a firearm at a teacher in Virginia, authorities said.
The shooting occurred in the Richneck Elementary School in the city of Newport News, which was shocked by the nature of the events.
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It is not clear how the boy, who is in police custody, got the gun, but Police Chief Steve Drew said the incident was not “an accidental shooting”.
The teacher, who is called Abby Zwerner and is 25 years old, sustained life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital.
According to the school, Zwerner is stable and is able to communicate with family and friends.
The school administration announced Monday that the center will remain closed all week to give students and their families “time to heal.”
What happened
The incident took place in a first grade classroom (6 to 7 years old) after an altercation between the child and the teacher of which no details have been released.
A student from the center, Novah Jones, who studies 5th grade in a different classroom. she described the moment when her class was blocked.
“We were doing math… a person came and announced: ‘Emergency closure, I repeat, emergency closure,'” the minor told CNN.
“I was scared… it was my first shutdown and I didn’t know what to do, so I hid under the desk like everyone else.”
At first he thought there was a man with a gun at the school.
Later she was evacuated along with the rest of the classmates, who were transferred to the gym before being able to go home.
A parent, Steve Gonzalez, whose son was in the class at the time of the shooting, told Fox News that the teacher reacted generously after the attack.
He explained that the teacher, after being shot, “yelled at the students to run away.”
Officials said that while the school, which has about 550 students, had metal detection facilities, students were randomly searched, so not all children were inspected.
Police declined to name the weapon used in the incident, but said the boy had used a gun.
stupor reactions
School district director George Parker said officials “would be looking into any instance that may have occurred that could have caused this incident.”
“This is terrible, something like this should never happen,” Parker added. “We want to make sure nothing like this happens again.”
He said school would be closed on Monday and promised support would be offered to students and parents to help them deal with the traumatic event.
Mayor Phillip Jones, who took office just three days ago, said the shooting marked “a dark day for Newport News.”
“We are going to learn from this and we are going to come back stronger”he told reporters.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin explained that he offered assistance to local officials, adding that his government stands “ready to help in any way possible.”
“I continue to monitor the situation and pray for the continued safety of all students and the community,” he wrote on Twitter.
Newton News is a city of about 180,000 inhabitants and is located about 112 km south of the state capital, Richmond.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.