Boy in custody after shooting wounds teacher in abdomen during an altercation, according to authorities
The apparently deliberate shooting of a Virginia school teacher by a gun-carrying six-year-old pupil has shocked many across the United States, causing outrage and horror even in a country long-used to regular school shootings that are rare elsewhere in the world.
Authorities have not described the exact circumstances of the shooting nor how they believe the boy came to possess the weapon or to whom it belongs. They may struggle to define exactly what action can be taken against someone so young, who is now in custody.
“We are ensuring he has all the services that he currently needs right now,” Newport News mayor Phillip Jones said Saturday.
The mayor said he considers the incident, the first recorded US school shooting of 2023, “a red flag for our country”. Jones added: “I do think that after this event, there is going to be a nationwide discussion on how these sorts of things can be prevented”.
The condition of the teacher, Abby Zwerner, 25, is now “trending in a positive direction”, Jones said over the weekend after she entered hospital in a critical condition.
Source: Virginia shooting of teacher by six-year-old ‘not accidental’, authorities say
