A 6-year-old boy intentionally shot and gravely injured a female teacher during an “altercation” at a Virginia elementary school Friday, authorities said.
The young student was taken into custody and the teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News was rushed to a hospital with life-threatening injuries after the student opened fire at around 2 p.m., police said.
“This was not an accidental shooting,” Police Chief Steve Drew told reporters at a press conference.
“Today our students got a lesson in gun violence. And what guns can do disrupt to not only an educational environment but also a family, a community,” added Newport News Superintendent George Parker.
It wasn’t immediately clear what sparked the argument, or how the child managed to get ahold of a firearm.
A 6-year-old student who witnessed the shooting told The Daily Press that her classmate shot their teacher “on purpose.”
The teacher was shot in the stomach and fell to her knees, said the girl, whose mother asked that she not be identified.
Police recovered evidence from a classroom where the shooting unfolded, Police Chief Steve Drew said.
“This was not a situation where we had a student or any other individuals going up and down the halls firing in a long shooting incident. It was in a classroom,” Drew said.
Fourth-grader Carlos Glover told the Daily Press that his class was in recess when the round was fired and were then ushered into the back of a classroom.“
Most of the whole class was crying,” the 9-year-old said.
The chaos sent the school into lockdown, which was lifted by 3 p.m. as horrified parents were reunited with their children at a reunification site near the school’s gym entrance, authorities said.
One mother, who did not provide her name, furiously told a 3TKR reporter that she was “pissed off” at the country’s lack of gun control.
“Why is there a 7-year-old with a bloody gun?” the woman fumed. “You’ve got a beautiful country, you’ve got beautiful people, but what’s the problem? Guns.
“How does a 7-year-old have a gun? That’s what I’m pissed off with. I’m only here because my husband was in the military or otherwise, I would not have chosen this country,” she added.
Another mother, Rose Danyelle, who has a fifth-grade daughter at the school, said she worries kind of mental toll the incident will take on the young students.
“They’re not physically hurt, but my daughter called me crying,” Rose told The Daily Press. “Because they’re supposed to be safe in school.”
Police have not announced any charges by late Friday.
The elementary school will be closed Monday, Newport News Superintendent George Parker announced.
A representative from the school didn’t immediately return The Post’s request for information Friday.
