6-Year-Old Student In Custody After Shooting A Teacher At Virginia Elementary School

OMG! An elementary school teacher was injured after a 6-year-old student opened fire in her classroom.

According to Police Chief Steve Drew in a press conference, the incident took place in a first-grade classroom at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, on Friday. Without going into a lot of detail, police said an altercation occurred in the room, and the young child fired a single round from a handgun at the unidentified teacher. Drew mentioned that the incident was “not an accidental shooting,” and it also didn’t seem the two knew each other beyond the classroom. The shooting was reported at around 2 p.m., and authorities responded “within minutes”:

“We did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting. We have a situation in one particular location where a gunshot was fired.”

The teacher – who was described as being a woman in her 30s – was rushed to a local hospital. At this time, Drew noted in the press conference that her injuries “are still considered life-threatening, but there was some improvement [in] the last update we got.” No students were harmed, and the young child involved in the incident was taken into custody:

“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.”

Drew applauded the response from the “heroic” faculty and staff members in helping to move the students to the gymnasium and keeping everyone calm. He added:

“The No. 1 process right now is to make sure we have counselors with our most precious thing we have, right — our students — and to get them back acquainted with their parents. That’s what we’re doing right now.”

Following the altercation, parents were understandably shocked and afraid. According to ABC News, one parent said her “heart stopped” when she found out about what happened at her 9-year-old son’s school:

“I was freaking out, very nervous, just wondering, was that one person my son. But he’s OK.”

Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones expressed that the kids’ safety is their “top priority” in the press conference, adding:

“It’s a dark day for Newport News, we’re going to learn from this and we’re going to come back stronger.”

Newport News Public Schools Superintendent Dr. George Parker then said Richneck Elementary School will be closed on Monday. He also stressed the importance of stopping gun violence in schools, saying:

“I’m in shock, and I’m disheartened. I really feel 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.”

Moving forward, Drew stated an investigation into the situation has been launched:

“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.”

For more details on the incident, you can watch the entire press conference (below):