A six-year-old boy has been taken into custody after reportedly using a firearm to intentionally shoot his teacher who has been left critically injured. Abby Zwerner, 25, is believed to have been left with life-threatening injuries as a result of the shooting which took place at around 2pm on Friday January 6 in Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia.
It is currently unknown how the gun came to be in the child's possession or what caused the incident to unfold but Police Chief Steve Drew said at a press conference it 'was not an accidental shooting'. According to one witness, the primary school teacher was shot in the stomach before falling to her knees while other reports claim she was shot in the chest, the Daily Star reports.
Newport News Superintendent George Parker said: “Today our students got a lesson in gun violence. And what guns can do to disrupt not only an educational environment but also a family, a community”. A classmate that witnessed the attack and wished to remain anonymous also claimed the incident was done 'on purpose'.
The MailOnline reported that the educator apparently 'screamed at her kids to run away' after she had been shot. Another pupil claimed that they heard the shot during their break between lessons and everyone was rushed back to their classrooms.
The same student said: “Most of the class was crying”. Police Chief Steve Drew added: “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”.
The terrified children were eventually let out of the school once it was deemed safe and were reunited with their worried parents.
One furious mother blamed the US gun laws for the incident: “Why is there a 7-year-old with a bloody gun? 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”.
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