Six-year-old in custody after shooting teacher at Virginia elementary school
A 6-year-old boy has been taken into custody after he shot a teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Virginia yesterday evening.
According to Police Chief Steve Drew, the female teacher was shot inside a classroom and claimed that the shooting was ‘not accidental’.
“The individual is a 6-year-old student. He is right now in police custody. We have been in contact with our commonwealth attorney and some other entities to help us best get services to this young man,” Police Chief Steve Drew said.
He said there was an altercation between the teacher and the student who had the firearm, and that a single round was fired.
According to Drew, there were no other students involved and investigations are ongoing.
“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 added.
According to Newport News Public Schools Superintendent, Dr. George Parker, the school will be closed on Monday.
“I’m in shock, and I’m disheartened. We need to educate our children and we need to keep them safe,” he said.
“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,” he added.
He also said that officials are looking into any past instances that may have transpired before the shooting.
