Abby Zwerner, the 30-year-old Virginia teacher who was seriously injured by a gunshot wound by a six-year-old student, has shown signs of improvement, authorities say.
Zwerner suffered life-threatening injuries and has been hospitalized in critical condition since Friday, when she was shot while working at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News. No other students were injured in the shooting.
The mayor of the city, Phillip Jones, explained to the BBC that Ms. Zwerner’s recovery “has a positive trend”, despite its seriousness, which made her fear for her life at first.
It is not clear how the boy, just 6 years old, got the gun. Officials said that while the school, which has about 550 students, had metal detection facilities, students were randomly searched and not all children were searched. The minor remains in police custody at this time.
Police are continuing with the investigation and have refused to say what may have motivated the incident, but the officer in command, Chief Steve Drew, told reporters the shooting followed an “alteration” in an elementary school classroom. and it didn’t seem to be “accidental”.
Virginia law prevents six-year-olds from being tried as adults. And the child would also be too young to be turned over to the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice if he is found guilty.
But a judge could revoke custody of the child from the parents and place it under state supervision.
On Saturday, Chief Drew said police “had been in contact with the juvenile prosecutor’s office as well as other entities” that can help police provide the best service for minors.
School district superintendent George Parker said Saturday that the shooting showed that “we need to educate our children and we need to keep them safe.”
“We need community support, continued support, to make sure guns are not available to youth and I sound like a broken record today because I keep reiterating that: that we need to keep guns out of the reach of our youth.” he added.
Newport News is a city of about 180,000 people and is located about 112 km south of the state capital, Richmond.
