According to ongoing investigations, the gun that the 6-year-old boy used to open fire on his teacher at an elementary school in Virginia, USA, was lawfully in his mother’s possession.
The gun that a 6-year-old boy used to open fire on his teacher in a classroom at an elementary school in Virginia, USA, was legally in his mother’s possession. This is the latest update released by local police on the story that has been circulating around the world.
According to previous reconstructions, the boy reportedly carried the gun to school in his backpack before he “deliberately” shot his 25-year-old teacher, Abigail “Abby” Zwerner, in class at Richneck Elementary School last Friday. The teacher, who remains hospitalized in “stable” condition, managed to get the students to safety before seeking help herself, investigators added.
What is the status of the investigation into the shooting at a Virginia elementary school?
The police of newport news, A town of about 180,000 northwest of Virginia Beach said it spoke to its teacher Monday. “She’s a soldier, she’s a hero,” Chief Constable Steve Drew said, adding that Zwerner repeatedly asked him how the students who were in the classroom at the time of the shooting were doing.
6-year-old shoots teacher in class, hits her after “quarrel”: maybe a reprimand
According to Drew, the boy just fired one shot at his teacher. He added that “the shooting wasn’t an accident, but intentionally‘ and which happened while Zwerner was giving a lecture. This one was shot at but no and in the upper chest.
One has been found 9mm Taurus pistol in the classroom next to the student’s desk, along with his backpack, a cell phone and an exploded grenade: “It was legally purchased by the child’s mother and kept in her apartment,” added the police chief.
The little one, who has not yet been identified, has since disappeared taken into custody and will be evaluated hospitalsaid the police, adding that they will ask for a provisional detention orderwhile the investigation into the incident continues with further interviews with witnesses and local children’s services. The school remains closed throughout the week to give students and families “time to relax,” Drew concluded.
What is the child at risk now?
The Virginia case has forced local leaders, police officers and violence experts to grapple with a terrifying question: What happens when a first grader opens fire? Four days after the dramatic events at Richneck Elementary School, the Newport News community is still searching for one Answer.
Legally, the authorities are in a quandary, as the BBC reports uncharted territory. Virginia law prohibits charging a six-year-old as an adult. The student could be charged in juvenile court, but the minimum age for juvenile detention is 11.
Because of this, it is possible that the consequences of what happened will be paid for by the parents of the child, also given that the gun he used belonged to his mother. Virginia law makes it a crime to “recklessly leave a loaded firearm unprotected so as to endanger the life or limbs of a child under the age of fourteen.” Which might apply to this case as you said Robert Unfortunately, Law Professor at George Mason University.
In another scenario, “the state of Virginia could argue that it was the actions of the parents that directly led to the shooting of the teacher and that the child was too young to pin any wrongdoing on,” Leider added.