A 6-year-old student shot a teacher during an altercation at a Virginia elementary school on Friday, police said. No students were injured in the incident at Richneck Elementary School, Newport News police said in a statement.
"This was not an accidental shooting," Police Chief Steve Drew told reporters during an evening press conference.
The chief said the teacher, a woman in her 30s, suffered what he described as a life-threatening gunshot wound and was taken to a hospital.
The boy was taken into custody, the chief said. No one else was involved in the incident, he 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 chief said a handgun was used in the altercation and he wanted to know where it came from.
The shooting was isolated to a classroom at the school, Drew said.
"This was not a situation where we had a student, or any other individuals, going up and down the halls actively firing in a long shooting incident," Drew said.
Mayor Phillip Jones said the incident "hurts my heart."
"It's a dark day for Newport News," Jones said. "We're going to learn from this, and we're going to come back stronger."
Schools Superintendent George Parker III said the incident happened in a first-grade classroom.
"Today our students got a lesson in gun violence," Parker said.
"This is terrible," he added. "This is something that should never occur, and I think we're all in shock and we all understand that we have a lot of work to do as a community to make sure things like this don't occur."
Metal detectors are used randomly throughout the school district, Parker said. Classes won't be held at the school Monday.
The unidentified suspect is in custody, Newport News Public Schools said in a statement, adding, "All of the students are safe."
A representative for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told ABC News the agency is assisting in the investigation by tracing the firearm that was recovered on the scene.
The shooting was reported around 2 p.m. inside the school, Drew told reporters.
"We did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting," Drew said. "We have a situation in one particular location where a gunshot was fired."
Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones was on the scene Friday afternoon and said he would be staying overnight at the hospital.
"It's been a long day for a lot of people, but at the end of the day the children's safety is our top priority," he told reporters.
One parent said her "heart stopped" when she heard the news of a shooting at her 9-year-old son's school.
"I was freaking out, very nervous, just wondering, was that one person my son," she said. "But he's OK."
Newport News Public Schools Superintendent Dr. George Parker told reporters that the school would be closed on Monday. He reiterated that more needs to be done to stop gun violence in schools.
"I'm sounding like a broken record today because I keep reiterating that we need to keep guns out of the hands of our young people," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment