Six-year-old intentionally shot teacher in Virginia school, police say

[Still Waters]

A six-year-old child deliberately shot a teacher at an elementary school in Virginia on Friday afternoon, according to police.

Police said in a statement that they have arrested the boy accused of shooting a female teacher at Richneck elementary school in Newport News, Virginia, a city in the south-eastern part of the state.

Police said they were notified about 2pm that the teacher had been shot inside the school during an altercation of some kind.

“We did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting,” Newport News police chief Drew told reporters. “We have a situation in one particular location where a gunshot was fired.”

He added that the shooting was not an accident.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/06/virginia-school-student-shot-teacher

[openozy]

Right to Bear Arms. Nice kid.

[Still Waters]

The condition of a Virginia teacher left seriously injured when she was shot by a six-year-old pupil has shown signs of improvement, authorities say.

Abby Zwerner suffered life-threatening injuries after she was shot with a handgun at Richneck Elementary School in the city of Newport News on Friday.

Mayor Phillip Jones told the BBC that Ms Zwerner's recovery was "trending in a positive direction".

But he added that she remained in a critical condition after the incident.

Online, social media users wished Ms Zwerner - who is believed to be in her 30s - a speedy recovery.

It is unclear how the child - who remains in police custody - obtained the gun. Officials said that while the school - which has around 550 students - had metal detection facilities, students were checked at random and not every child was inspected.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64200873

[Still Waters]

The Virginia school teacher shot by her six-year-old student was injured after she sought to confiscate the weapon from the child who had revealed the gun in class, a parent of another child in the class has said.

Brittaney Gregory, whose son is in the same class as the shooter at Richneck elementary school in Newport News, Virginia, detailed her son’s reaction to the shocking scene to the Washington Post newspaper.

Gregory said the class was reading and about to go to art class when the child pulled a handgun from their backpack and pointed it at his teacher, Abby Zwerner. “She was going to confiscate it, and that’s when he shot,” Gregory told the Post.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/09/virginia-teacher-shot-newport-news-richneck-elementary-abby-zwerner

[Tatetopa]

What would the outcome have been if the teacher was armed as some propose all teachers should be?  Would she have had time to draw and fire before the kid got off his shot?  If she had succeeded, would we hail her as a hero for stopping a school-shooter terrorist  or a s a  villain for killing a 6 year old student? What if it had been an armed school resource officer who happened to be there visiting the classroom, got off the shot, and potentially saved the teacher and rest of the class?  Are we any closer to a solution than we were a decade ago?

[Jon the frog]

On 1/8/2023 at 9:09 AM, Still Waters said:

 

It is unclear how the child - who remains in police custody - obtained the gun. Officials said that while the school - which has around 550 students - had metal detection facilities, students were checked at random and not every child was inspected.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64200873

That's a freakin 6 years old... how in the world the US have gone so low and chaotic that you need to make 6 years old pass metal detection facilities at school. It's just turning into extreme madness. 

Edited January 9, 2023 by Jon the frog

[Myles]

On 1/8/2023 at 9:09 AM, Still Waters said:

 

It is unclear how the child - who remains in police custody - obtained the gun. Officials said that while the school - which has around 550 students - had metal detection facilities, students were checked at random and not every child was inspected.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64200873

That should be an easy question to answer and I assume the parents will be arrested as they should be.  

 

44 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

What would the outcome have been if the teacher was armed as some propose all teachers should be?  Would she have had time to draw and fire before the kid got off his shot?  If she had succeeded, would we hail her as a hero for stopping a school-shooter terrorist  or a s a  villain for killing a 6 year old student? 

I would say a hero because at the time no one would have known if the child was going to keep shooting other students.

[Tatetopa]

15 minutes ago, Myles said:

I would say a hero because at the time no one would have known if the child was going to keep shooting other students.

So anybody who has displayed a firearm in public and might be construed as pointing it at someone is fair game to be shot as a precaution, regardless of age?  

[Myles]

16 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

So anybody who has displayed a firearm in public and might be construed as pointing it at someone is fair game to be shot as a precaution, regardless of age?  

As soon as they point it at someone, yes.

[Gunn]

3 hours ago, Tatetopa said:

What would the outcome have been if the teacher was armed as some propose all teachers should be?  Would she have had time to draw and fire before the kid got off his shot?  If she had succeeded, would we hail her as a hero for stopping a school-shooter terrorist  or a s a  villain for killing a 6 year old student? What if it had been an armed school resource officer who happened to be there visiting the classroom, got off the shot, and potentially saved the teacher and rest of the class?  Are we any closer to a solution than we were a decade ago?

See the thing about this incident and those scenarios you're talking about is none of that would have happened if this school had metal detectors like the airports. And schools need those in this day in age, not only because of guns, but because of short swords, small machetes, tantos, hunting knives, switchblades, you name it, that kids will often carry with them into school.

[openozy]

3 hours ago, Myles said:

As soon as they point it at someone, yes.

Yeah, a kid would be more likely to shoot with their limited brain power, anyway it could have been the AntiChrist Damien .

[psyche101]

On 1/7/2023 at 9:56 PM, openozy said:

Right to Bear Arms. Nice kid.

More responsible gun owners. 

 

[the13bats]

12 hours ago, Tatetopa said:

What would the outcome have been if the teacher was armed as some propose all teachers should be?  Would she have had time to draw and fire before the kid got off his shot?  If she had succeeded, would we hail her as a hero for stopping a school-shooter terrorist  or a s a  villain for killing a 6 year old student? What if it had been an armed school resource officer who happened to be there visiting the classroom, got off the shot, and potentially saved the teacher and rest of the class?  Are we any closer to a solution than we were a decade ago?

 

11 hours ago, Tatetopa said:

So anybody who has displayed a firearm in public and might be construed as pointing it at someone is fair game to be shot as a precaution, regardless of age?  

Man you come up with those deep thought provokers of gold.  There was a time im 58 i would have said "its only a kid" but its true times do change as do humans and another thread on here talks of a 10yo who blew his mom away shot in the face because she wouldnt buy the spoiled entitled souless monster a toy. Now a 6yo some way thinks its okay to shoot his teacher, the reply "hes just a kid" wont wash any longer we can bray about metal detectors or armed teachers we can bleat about gun control those imnsho are all just band aids we as a tribe are failing.

In one of the lethal weapon movies glovers character kills a young friend of his son who was a wannabe thug and started shooting first, at the funeral glover gets slapped by the kids mom and the dad tells glover if he wants to do something arrest the man who put the gun in his sons hand, the flaw i see with that his sons hand wanted that gun took that gun pulled the trigger at a cop the dad needed to accept his responsibility in his kids actions. Just watch the parents of the 6yo will blame every thing and every one except themselves i think this way because its the trend ive been seeing. And no i dont see the answer.

Edited January 10, 2023 by the13bats
typos

[openozy]

Kids are just baby humans, surprise, surprise and some are just born bad from genetics, nature always beats nurture. The parents are probably trash as well or the kid was a result of a bad cross breeding. Anyway, if a gun is pointed at you and fired you could very well die if it's a 5 year old or an 85 year old on the trigger. Until gun ownership is controlled more this is going to be a regular theme.

[the13bats]

6 minutes ago, openozy said:

Kids are just baby humans, surprise, surprise and some are just born bad from genetics, nature always beats nurture. The parents are probably trash as well or the kid was a result of a bad cross breeding. Anyway, if a gun is pointed at you and fired you could very well die if it's a 5 year old or an 85 year old on the trigger. Until gun ownership is controlled more this is going to be a regular theme.

I agree with your thinking here.^^^

If you saw road house remember sam Elliot tells swazy when a man points a gun in your face you either die or you kill the MF.

when i said,

34 minutes ago, the13bats said:

the dad needed to accept his responsibility in his kids actions.

I want to add that movie dad needs to grasp he failed his son otherwise his son wouldnt have gone the way he did of course like you point out some humans are just bad/evil like the 10yo who shot his mom in the face. What i have seen is an alarming lower and lower bar as to whats "okay" and im pointing that not at mental cases like the 10yo but the average human. You are in a beautiful land i would love to visit that is on its gun issues we arent, i fully agree that the U.S. is in a mess with gun ownership, gun safety you name it.

We are not in a position to go round up guns it wont work like that here, now i have no clue where 6yo got that gun but lets speculate for a moment it belonged to his parents, okay he shot a teacher he brought the gun so im going with premeditated, thankfully the victim is still alive she will never fully recover but alive i say try and convict the parents as accessories to attempted murder. bust a few careless gun owners rather than whining and crying things like it was an accident or its just a kid and maybe just maybe a few gun owners would wake up to the responsibility.

[openozy]

9 minutes ago, the13bats said:

You are in a beautiful land i would love to visit

You are welcome to come and stay with me bats as long as we don't talk paranormal, lol. We do have looney, gun toting hillbillies with no gun permits, probably had guns handed down to them by their uncle daddies but it is pretty quiet and peaceful generally. It's just the way the world is now, over crowded which leads to hostility and violence. Oz now is a far cry from the simple way I grew up 50 years ago.

[Abramelin]

15 hours ago, Tatetopa said:

So anybody who has displayed a firearm in public and might be construed as pointing it at someone is fair game to be shot as a precaution, regardless of age?  

The teacher didn't, and was badly wounded.

What would you do? Talk with the kid hoping he would hand you the gun?

[Gunn]

4 hours ago, the13bats said:

 

Man you come up with those deep thought provokers of gold.  There was a time im 58 i would have said "its only a kid" but its true times do change as do humans and another thread on here talks of a 10yo who blew his mom away shot in the face because she wouldnt buy the spoiled entitled souless monster a toy. Now a 6yo some way thinks its okay to shoot his teacher, the reply "hes just a kid" wont wash any longer we can bray about metal detectors or armed teachers we can bleat about gun control those imnsho are all just band aids we as a tribe are failing.

In one of the lethal weapon movies glovers character kills a young friend of his son who was a wannabe thug and started shooting first, at the funeral glover gets slapped by the kids mom and the dad tells glover if he wants to do something arrest the man who put the gun in his sons hand, the flaw i see with that his sons hand wanted that gun took that gun pulled the trigger at a cop the dad needed to accept his responsibility in his kids actions. Just watch the parents of the 6yo will blame every thing and every one except themselves i think this way because its the trend ive been seeing. And no i dont see the answer.

Good points man, good points. But my point about the metal detector still stands. Why? Because guns or no guns, you got kids that wanna bring blades to school and cut/stab someone in fights because they think they can do so.

[jmccr8]

It wasn’t clear to me what the altercation was after reading the article, was she reprimanding him for some reason and he pulled it out and shot her? Did he pull it out and she tried to take it away and got shot in the process? I am not making excuses for the kid just wondering how the incident unfolded. The first cause of fault is the parents as far as I am concerned for creating an opportunity for the kid to be able to get it in the first place.

Was the safety on to start with or did he know how to flip the safety off as if it was properly stored it wouldn’t have been loaded and the safety on.

Edited January 10, 2023 by jmccr8

[DarkHunter]

5 hours ago, jmccr8 said:

Was the safety on to start with or did he know how to flip the safety off as if it was properly stored it wouldn’t have been loaded and the safety on.

A lot of hand guns dont have a safety

[jmccr8]

1 hour ago, DarkHunter said:

A lot of hand guns dont have a safety

Hi Dark

Yes that it true, there really wasn’t much information given in the news article about many aspects of the incident so was just pondering what did happen . We will have to wait until more details are given.

[Tatetopa]

8 hours ago, Abramelin said:

What would you do? Talk with the kid hoping he would hand you the gun?

In a civilized society, that would be a first step.  Back off and de-escalate. If you have ever had any friends who were soldiers and had to shoot an armed child attacking them, you know it messes them up for years afterwards.  Most of us have a natural aversion to killing children, there are no great choices in that situation and no guaranteed happy ending.

Prevention would be a lot better course of action. 

[+Desertrat56]

In an elementary school I don't think metal detectors would be as useful as a middle school.  It is unusual that a 6 year old would have access to a gun, and the parents need to be investigated, no matter what.    The elementary schools could save money by locking all doors and making students go through one door where their backpacks and jackets are searched.   It would be one or two added employees but it makes more sense than metal detectors.

In high school metal detectors are not really a deterent as teenagers have access to all kinds of technology including 3D printers that can make guns or gun parts.  There has to be some responsibility put on the teenagers, and more on the parents of younger children.   Teachers need to be trained to identify children whose parents may need to be investigated.   But it can't just be on the teacher's word, it has to be more people involved in the decision to investigate.  

When I was in high school there were guns and knives and students who were constantly drunk, driving suv's and pickup trucks.  But we didn't have mass shootings, just 2 or more boys fighting with knives or shooting each other in the parking lot.  I am old so you are not allowed to say people have changed, what has changed is that children are being allowed to supervise themselves at a younger age, parents depending on technology to keep them entertained instead of finding ways to keep them occupied (like chores, board games with friends, etc, in other words actual human interaction)

Edited January 10, 2023 by Desertrat56

[Gunn]

5 hours ago, Desertrat56 said:

In an elementary school I don't think metal detectors would be as useful as a middle school.  It is unusual that a 6 year old would have access to a gun, and the parents need to be investigated, no matter what.    The elementary schools could save money by locking all doors and making students go through one door where their backpacks and jackets are searched.   It would be one or two added employees but it makes more sense than metal detectors.

In high school metal detectors are not really a deterent as teenagers have access to all kinds of technology including 3D printers that can make guns or gun parts.  There has to be some responsibility put on the teenagers, and more on the parents of younger children.   Teachers need to be trained to identify children whose parents may need to be investigated.   But it can't just be on the teacher's word, it has to be more people involved in the decision to investigate.  

When I was in high school there were guns and knives and students who were constantly drunk, driving suv's and pickup trucks.  But we didn't have mass shootings, just 2 or more boys fighting with knives or shooting each other in the parking lot.  I am old so you are not allowed to say people have changed, what has changed is that children are being allowed to supervise themselves at a younger age, parents depending on technology to keep them entertained instead of finding ways to keep them occupied (like chores, board games with friends, etc, in other words actual human interaction)

There are some descent points you got there, Desertrat, except for one thing. You forget that the security and their metal detectors at our airports prove a majority of what you said wrong. I don't know how they do it but they even catch people trying to pass through plastic guns/gun parts. I had a buddy that got caught with a plastic key chain knife that looks like a key with a small blade in it that retracts to make it look like an ordinary key with the rest of his keys. He forgot he had it and didn't take it off of his key ring before getting to the airport. The security held him up for a while over that little thing, but eventually sent him on his way. Anyway, you don't hear about somebody getting metal guns, plastic guns, knives, razor blades, past security and their airport metal detectors onto planes all that much these days.

[+Desertrat56]

9 minutes ago, Gunn said:

There are some descent points you got there, Desertrat, except for one thing. You forget that the security and their metal detectors at our airports prove a majority of what you said wrong. I don't know how they do it but they even catch people trying to pass through plastic guns/gun parts. I had a buddy that got caught with a plastic key chain knife that looks like a key with a small blade in it that retracts to make it look like an ordinary key with the rest of his keys. He forgot he had it and didn't take it off of his key ring before getting to the airport. The security held him up for a while over that little thing, but eventually sent him on his way. Anyway, you don't hear about somebody getting metal guns, plastic guns, knives, razor blades, past security and their airport metal detectors onto planes all that much these days.

The airports are using more than metal detectors.  School districts cannot just invest huge amounts of money in metal detectors and police or what ever else, and elementary students are under the age of 12, usually not going to bring a gun or knife to school.   I do know that some kids do seem to like knives at a young age and parents need to be responsible for making sure a kid doesn't bring one to school, and yes I know most parents don't have a clue what is in their kid's backpack.  

Most middle schools and high schools already have metal detectors and at least in the city I live in all high schools have at least on cop on campus all day, and they have cops that patrol all the schools at night.   Those cops are not city cops, they are hired by the school district and are only allowed to arrest vandals.  If they find a kid with a weapon they have to call the city police.   (I suspect most of those school cops are like my cousin, washed up cops that have been fired from the real police force, they have training, and that saves the school district money).