A 25-year-old heroine who called at her kids to flee danger is the first-grade teacher who authorities claim was purposefully shot in the chest by a six-year-old boy.
According to DailyMail.com, Abby Zwerner, a preschool teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, was shot on Friday about 2:00 p.m. in her classroom.
She underwent surgery afterward in a hospital. Zwerner was gravely hurt, according to authorities, and there have been no new developments.
Before shooting Zwerner of Williamsburg, the teenager, who has not been publicly identified, got into a “argument,” according to police.
Sebastian Gonzalez-Hernandez, Zwerner’s father, shortly after confirming her identification to DailyMail.com, described Zwerner’s selflessness.
He said “she yelled at her kids to run away” after the student fired a single bullet.
“Even after she was shot, she thought about the safety of her children,” Gonzalez-Hernandez said.
“My son didn’t see what happened, he heard the shot and turned to see Miss Zwerner lying on the ground,” he told DailyMail.com on Friday.
“She is an amazing teacher, so dedicated. My son absolutely loves her and we are devastated by what happened. We are all thinking of her and hoping she gets better soon.”
Police have determined that a six-year-old kid fired the horrifying shot, but they are still looking into how the first-grader came into possession of a gun.
“This was not an accidental shooting,” Newport News chief Steve Drew said at a news conference on Friday. ‘It was in a classroom that an argument broke out. We haven’t had a situation where anyone avoided the school shooting. We had a situation at a certain place where a shot was fired.’
It was unclear if the student who was detained today was the same as the one who brought “shining gold balls” to school last week, according to the grandmother of one of the pupils who spoke to DailyMail.com.
The child allegedly “brought bullets to school last week and claimed he would bring his pistol,” according to the grandmother, who begged not to be identified.
She said on Facebook, “A parent informed the school they didn’t do anything, now look.
She informed DailyMail.com that a child outside had warned them that a student had been carrying flashy gold bullets to school and was considering bringing a pistol. The parents were notified by the student, who then notified the school. The school only recently informed the parents that the child’s parents claimed the object was a nerf bullet and that nerf bullets aren’t shiny and gold.
She wasn’t certain that the kid who supposedly provided the ammunition was the same kid.
“If we have a perceived threat or problem, we do random metal detections on those days,” Parker said Friday.
It’s unclear if the school improved testing in response to the bullet’s complaint the previous week.
“Today our students got a lesson in gun violence,” Parker said. “We must keep the guns out of the hands of our young people.”
One of the student’s British parents, who is presently residing in the US since her husband is in the military, is urging the authorities to take action against the city’s gun problem.
“Guns, that’s the biggest problem in this country,” she told WTKR. “Why is there a seven year old with a bloody gun? … How does a seven-year-old get a gun?
“I’m only here because my husband is in the military. Otherwise I would not have decided to come to this country.”
After the 2 p.m. incident, where a six-year-old is accused of intentionally shooting his teacher during a “argument,” large groups of parents gathered outside Richneck Elementary School to wait for news.
In order to focus on the “emotional health of our staff and students,” Parker said the school will be closed on Monday.
Police claim that the occurrence is no longer a concern and that it was a singular incident.
The Daily Press was informed by a six-year-old youngster that the shooter was a classmate.
The six-year-old who saw the shooting claimed that one of her classmates shot the instructor “on purpose,” causing the governor to collapse to the ground.
A mom of a fourth-grader reported getting a text message from the school informing her that a shooting had taken place and the suspect had been taken into custody.
