Friday’s shooting took place at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Va., a suburb about 70 miles outside Richmond.
“We were doing math … an announcer came on, she was like, ‘lockdown, I repeat lockdown,'” 5th-grader Novah Jones told CNN. “… I didn’t know what to do, so I just hid under my desk like everybody was.”
The injured teacher, identified as Abigail Zwerner during a Monday press conference, was first reported as being in “life-threatening” condition following the shooting. On Monday, Police Chief Steve Drew said she was in stable condition.
“I couldn’t breathe, I was in shock,” Novah’s mother, Kasheba Jones,told CNNof the moment her daughter texted her about the shooting.
Novah said she experienced “flashbacks” while trying to sleep Friday night because she feared the alleged shooter would show up at her house with a gun.
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Zwerner was standing before her students providing “classroom instructions” before Friday’s shooting, Chief Drew said at Monday’s press conference, contradicting a prior statement that there had been an “altercation” involved.
Zwerner held up her hand during the shooting and the bullet went through her hand and then her chest, Drew said. He also noted that Zwerner helped all the students out into the hallway before leaving the classroom herself, saying she “saved lives that day.”
“The individual is a 6-year-old student. He is right now in police custody,” Drew said at a priorpress conference several hours after the shootingFriday.
“We have been in contact with our commonwealth attorney and some other entities to help us best get services to this young man,” he said.
“This was not an accidental shooting,” he noted.
Newport News Public Schools Superintendent Dr. George Parker also attended that press conference. “I’m in shock, and I’m disheartened,” Dr. Parker said. “We need to educate our children and we need to keep them safe.”
“We need to keep guns out of the hands of our young people,” he said.
The mayor of Newport News, Phillip Jones, also addressed the media, saying that though the incident was “still raw,” the city council and school board would work to ensure they have policies in place to avoid another instance like that in the future.
The school is closed all week, Parker said at Monday’s news conference, and students, parents and community members are all eligible to receive mental health support in the wake of the incident.
The investigation is ongoing. It’s unclear whether charges will be filed against the boy’s parents, officials said Monday.
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source: people.com
