A 6-year-old who police say opened fired in a Virginia classroom and critically injured a trainer was in custody Friday, police mentioned.
“This was not an unintentional capturing,” Newport Information police Chief Steve Drew mentioned.
No college students had been injured within the afternoon capturing at Richneck Elementary Faculty in Newport Information, police mentioned in a statement.
The capturing occurred in a first-grade classroom, and the kid and trainer, who knew one another, had been apparently alone, Drew mentioned at a night information convention.
“The altercation was between a 6-year-old, the scholar, who did have the firearm, and the trainer, after which a spherical was fired,” the chief mentioned.
The trainer, a girl in her 30s, was hospitalized, officers mentioned.
“Her accidents are nonetheless thought of life-threatening, however there was some enchancment within the final replace that we bought,” the chief mentioned Friday night.
The chief mentioned the 6-year-old boy is not going to be recognized due to his age.
“I am in awe, and I am in shock, and I am disheartened,” Newport Information Public Faculties Superintendent George Parker III mentioned on the night information convention.
James J. Fedderman, president of the Virginia Schooling Affiliation, the union that represents many public faculty academics within the state, mentioned in an announcement the capturing is “yet one more instance of mindless violence affecting our public colleges.”
Becky Pringle, president of the Nationwide Schooling Affiliation, mentioned in the identical assertion she hopes the trainer recovers fully. “This is not going to cease till elected leaders take consequential motion and stand as much as the gun foyer to stop gun violence in our communities and college,” she mentioned.
Police and college officers are wanting into what occurred earlier than the capturing.
Officers had been on the faculty “inside minutes” of getting a name about pictures fired, the police chief mentioned.
The varsity was locked down, and Drew praised the poise and effectivity of the scholars and college who scrambled to security.
“I couldn’t be extra impressed,” he mentioned.
All the college students have since been moved to the gymnasium and are being reunited with their mother and father.
“The principle factor proper now could be we bought all these children protected and the primary precedence for me is to examine on our sufferer on the hospital and get all these college students again with their households,” Drew informed reporters earlier within the day.
Newport Information Mayor Phillip Jones vowed to conduct an “after motion” investigation and report so such an incident “does not occur once more.”
Faculties chief Parker mentioned he’ll have a look at upgrading the district’s steel detectors, which could be activated for sure days, however which weren’t in impact full time on the elementary faculty.
It wasn’t clear the place the kid may need obtained the weapon, which Drew described solely as a handgun.
