A six-year-old first-grader at an elementary school in Newport News, Virginia, shot a teacher on Friday afternoon during an altercation in a classroom, the authorities said, leaving her with “life-threatening” injuries and renewing calls for gun restrictions.
The boy, who shot the teacher once with a handgun at about 2pm (local time), was in police custody on Friday evening, Steve Drew, the chief of the Newport News Police Department, said at a news conference.
He added that the teacher, a woman in her 30s, was taken to a local hospital and that her condition had slightly improved by late on Friday afternoon.
The superintendent of Newport News Public Schools, Dr George Parker, said at the news conference that “we need to keep guns out of the hands of our young people”.
Photos and video taken after the shooting at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News on Friday showed’s brick building: children appeared afraid and confused, parents stood beside crime scene tape and dozens of officers patrolled the area.