Police: 6-year-old shoots teacher in Virginia classroom

Police: 6-year-old shoots teacher inside Virginia classroom

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) ” A 6-year-old student report with every one other accompanied by wounded a teacher at his educational organization inside Virginia throughout an altercation inside a first-grade classroom Friday, police with every one other accompanied by educational organization officials inside the city of Newport News said.

Experts said a educational organization shooting involving a 6-year-old is extremely rare, although not unheard of, while Virginia rules and regulations limits the ways inside which a child that number of years tin exist punished for such a crime.

No students were injured inside the shooting at Richneck Elementary School, police said. The teacher ” a woman inside her 30s ” suffered life-threatening injuries. Her condition had improved somewhat by late afternoon, Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said.

We did not have a circumstances where someone was going around the educational organization shooting, Drew told reporters, subsequent adding that the gunshot was not an accident.

Drew said the student with every one other accompanied by teacher had known inside every one other inside a classroom setting.

He said the male child had a handgun inside the classroom, with every one other accompanied by investigators were trying to figure not here where he obtained it. The police leader did not provide further details concerning the shooting, the altercation or what happened inside the school.

Joselin Glover, whose son is inside fourth grade, told The Virginian-Pilot newspaper she got a text from the educational organization stating that one human being was report with every one other accompanied by another was inside custody.

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My heart stopped, she said. I was freaking out, extremely nervous. Just wondering if that one human being was my son.

Carlos, her 9-year-old, was at recess. But he said he with every one other accompanied by his classmates were in a short time holed up inside the spine of a classroom.

Most of the whole class was crying, Carlos told the newspaper.

Parents with every one other accompanied by students were reunited at a gymnasium door, Newport News Public Schools said via Facebook.

The police leader did not specifically address questions concerning whether authorities were inside be in touch accompanied by the boy™s parents, nevertheless said members of the police dividing were handling that investigation.

We have been inside touch accompanied by our commonwealth™s attorney (local prosecutor) with every one other accompanied by some other entities to assist us finest obtain services to this young man, Drew said.

Newport News is a city of concerning 185,000 people inside southeastern Virginia known for its shipyard, which builds the nation™s aircraft carriers with every one other accompanied by other U.S. Navy vessels.

Richneck has concerning 550 students who are inside kindergarten into and not here of fifth grade, according to the Virginia Department of Education™s website. School officials have by that hour dated said that there will exist no indeed classes at the educational organization on Monday.

Today our students got a lesson inside firearm violence, said George Parker III, Newport News schools superintendent, with every one other accompanied by what guns tin do to disrupt, not only an educational environment, nevertheless too a family, a community.

Virginia rules and regulations does not permit 6-year-olds to exist tried while adults.

In addition, a 6-year-old is excessively young to exist committed to the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice if found guilty.

A juvenile judge would have authority, though, to revoke a parent™s custody with every one other accompanied by place a child under the purview of the Department of Social Services.

A educational organization shooting involving a 6-year-old is extremely rare, said James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Boston™s Northeastern University.

Fox told The Associated Press Friday evening that he could believe of one foregoing event involving a child that age.

In 2000, a 6-year-old male child fired a bullet from a .32-caliber firearm inside Buell Elementary near Flint, Michigan, 60 miles (96 kilometers) from Detroit, striking 6-year-old Kayla Rolland inside the neck, according to an AP article from the time. She died a half-hour later.

Fox analyzed educational organization shooting facts sets going spine to 1970 from the Center for Homeland Defense with every one other accompanied by Security, which is located at the Naval Postgraduate School inside Monterey, California. He said the facts listed educational organization shootings involving children ages 7, 8, 9 with every one other accompanied by older, nevertheless not 6-year-olds.

Another element that stands not here concerning the Virginia shooting is that it occurred inside a classroom, Fox said. Many occur external outside a educational organization building where students are unsupervised.

From 2010 into and not here of 2021, there were additional than 800 school-related shootings inside K-12 schools that associated accompanied by 1,149 victims. Thirty percent of those occurred inside the educational organization building, said Fox, who published the 2010 book, Violence with every one other accompanied by Security on Campus: From Preschool Through College.

There are students who killed teachers, additional typically high educational organization students, Fox said. I don™t know of other cases where a 6-year-old report a teacher.

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Barakat reported from Falls Church, Virginia.