Boy, 6, held in custody after teacher is shot in US school

A SIX-YEAR-OLD boy is in police custody after reportedly shooting a teacher in the stomach and leaving her with life-threatening injuries, following a classroom altercation.

“This was not an accidental shooting,” said Steve Drew, police chief of Newport News, a city in Virginia.

The teacher, 25-year-old Abigail Zwerner, is in a stable condition, following the incident at Richneck Elementary School on Friday.

It was unclear how the child obtained the gun. A police spokesman said: “It is still a very fluid and active investigation. We are working around the clock.”

Among the large number of school shootings across the US, there have been 16 cases since 1970 in which the perpetrator was under 10.

Under Virginia law, a six-year-old child cannot be charged as an adult despite the gravity of the offence. Even if charged in a juvenile court, the minimum age for juvenile custody is 11.

Details of the incident, which happened at 2pm, are vague. After being shot, Ms Zwerner screamed at children to get to safety, it was reported.

Sebastian Gonzalez-hernandez said that his child was in the classroom at the time. “My son didn’t see what happened, he heard the gunshot go off, and turned around to see Miss Zwerner on the floor. “She is an amazing teacher, so dedicated,” he told Mail Online.

“It’s scary,” he added. “I’m just trying to keep my son occupied so he’s not thinking about it.”

A grandmother of another pupil claimed the child shooter brought bullets to the school the previous week and said he would bring a gun.

The school, she claimed, had been told of the incident, but took no action.

“We’re a quiet neighbourhood,” Daniel Smith, a resident of Newport News, a city of 180,000 with a major shipyard and a naval base, told

York Times. “Nobody bothers anybody, and they look out for each other.”