WASHINGTON: A six-year-old boy opened fire in an elementary school classroom in the eastern US state of Virginia on Friday, seriously injuring a teacher, police said.
No students were injured in the incident at Richneck Elementary School in the beach town of Newport News.
“The person is a six-year-old student. He is currently in police custody,” local police Chief Steve Drew told a news conference, adding that it was “not a random shooting.”
Police said the victim was a teacher in her 30s and her injuries were believed to be life-threatening.
“I’m in shock and I’m disappointed,” said city schools Superintendent George Parker.
“We need the support of the community to ensure that guns are not available to young people.”
School shootings have plagued the United States, with recent tragedies including last May’s killing of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, by an 18-year-old gunman.
There were about 44,000 gun-related deaths in the United States last year, about half of them murders, accidents and self-defense cases, and half of them suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive database.