It’s hard to imagine why a 6-year-old would decide to harm someone like this.
A 6-year-old boy was taken into police custody after he shot a teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, Friday afternoon, Police Chief Steve Drew said in a news conference.
“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.”
Drew said the female teacher was shot inside a classroom and added that “this was not an accidental shooting.”
The police chief said there was an altercation between the teacher and the student, who had the firearm, and that asingle round was fired. No other students were involved, he added.
Authorities and the Newport News public school district did not identify the teacher or the student involved in the shooting.
But the teacher was identified by her alma mater, James Madison University, as Abby Zwerner.
“All of us as James Madison University are deeply saddened by the reported tragic shooting of JMU alumna Abby Zwerner,” university President Jonathan R. Alger said in a statement posted on the school’s official Facebook page.
“JMU is prepared to support those impacted by this incident now and in the weeks to come,” the statement added.
Zwerner is listed as a first-grade teacher in Richneck Elementary School’s staff directory.
Teacher in stable condition, police say
In a Saturday statement, the Newport News Police Department said the teacher had improved and was listed in stable condition, adding the chief had met with her and her family.
“Chief Drew asked that you continue to keep her in your thoughts and prayers,” police said. A day earlier, the chief had described the teacher’s injuries as life-threatening.
An investigation is ongoing, police said.
“We’ll get the investigation done, there’s questions we’ll want to ask and find out about. I want to know where that firearm came from, what was the situation,” Drew said in Friday’s news conference.
‘Impossible to wrap our minds around’
Newport News Mayor Phillip D. Jones said Saturday authorities were working to answer questions the community has grappled with since the shooting.
“It is almost impossible to wrap our minds around the fact that a 6 year old 1st grader brought a loaded handgun to school and shot a teacher; however, this is exactly what our community is grappling with today,” the mayor said in a statement posted on Twitter.
Authorities are “working diligently to get an answer to the question we are all asking – how did this happen? We are also working to ensure the child receives the supports and services he needs as we continue to process what took place,” Jones said.
Speaking during Friday’s news conference, Newport News Public Schools Superintendent Dr. George Parker said he was saddened by the shooting and called for better gun safety measures from the community to keep firearms away from children.
“I’m in shock, and I’m disheartened,” Parker said in Friday’s news conference. “We need to educate our children and we need to keep them safe.”
“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,” the superintendent said.
Officials are also looking into any past instances that may have transpired before the shooting, Parker added.
Elementary school closed Monday and Tuesday
The elementary school will remain closed Monday and Tuesday to give the community “time to heal,” Principal Briana Foster Newton said in a statement, adding that officials will update families if the closure is extended.
“My heart is aching for our school community,” the principal said. “My thoughts and prayers remain with our teacher who was seriously injured, and our students and our staff, who are dealing with the aftereffects of this tragedy.”
In a separate statement, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said his administration offered assistance in response to the shooting and “stand at the ready to help in any way we can.”
“I am continuing to monitor the situation and am praying for the continued safety of all students and the community,” the governor said Friday.
HOW did the boy get to that fire arm?
Was it an irresponsible parent – then s/he sould be held fully responsible.
What are parents teaching their offspring now a days.
All parents who have firearms should go through a “teaching.course(on what to teach their children)” and taken their firearms
away until they have passed the course.
All remember: Guns are for killing.
Guns are for protection from murderous stoner Democrat junkies…
You are a moron
They need to find the adults responsible for this child and hold them responsible. It dies not matter what race this kid is.There is something terribly wrong with this country and sooner or later the entire country isn’t going to pay.This is sick just down right sick
Just more of Democrats’ beloved junkies ADDICTIONS VIOLENCE… kid prolly has stoner parents… didn’t know he wasn’t allowed to bring a gun to school for show and tell… prolly got angry when teacher tried to take it away from him… teacher prolly didn’t know how to take it away sensibly… teacher prolly had ‘unreasonable Democrat fear’ of guns…
Buzz,
I really think you are intentionally trying to sound as ignorant and ridiculous as you possibly can to get a reaction from the people that read this. If it makes you feel good to share your very imaginative and pathetic hypotheses on nearly every article that is written, then have at it. It is your right. But if you believe that it makes you appear to be sensible or intelligent or in the majority of how the American people think, I believe you would be very disappointed. All the best to you.
I raised all my 4 boys arudn guns but hte rule in my house is IF IT’S NOT YOURS DON’T TOUCH IT. THey knew guns only werw for adults and htey never even looked at a gun if they saw it. Kids today do’t learn that just becase they see soemthng that it is NOT THEIR’S TO TOUCH. Never had a prlobkem. I was rainsed with guns as well and never touched anything that was not mine. THAT is what kids need to learn. When the time comes for them to learn about guns, then you tached tehm step by step adn still teh rule holds that if teh gun or whatever is not theirs they do not touch it. They need to know guns are for speical purposes and are not toys !
Too many guns in hands of moronic and careless parents. Our Founders never forethought of this when they composed the really stupid 2nd Amendment.
Put the parents away and I do not know if a nasty 6 years old kid can be saved and reformed, but I doubt we have the resources and facility to get it done, so also keep him away from society