6-year-old boy shoots teacher at Newport News elementary school, police say

A first-grade student shot and critically wounded a teacher Friday afternoon inside Richneck Elementary School, according to police and school officials.

Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said a 6-year-old boy was involved in “an altercation” with his teacher before he shot her with a handgun.

“This was not an accidental shooting,” Drew said, saying one round was fired.

The boy was taken into custody. No students were injured. The teacher, a woman in her 30s, has life-threatening injuries.

“She was transported to an area hospital, where I can tell you that’s where our thoughts and prayers are at this time,” Drew said.

A 6-year-old student, whose mother didn’t want her daughter’s name used, said she witnessed the shooting, which happened about 2 p.m. The girl told a Daily Press reporter that one of her first-grade classmates shot their teacher “on purpose.”

The teacher was shot in the stomach and fell to her knees, the girl said.

Several parents interviewed outside the school said officers on scene told them a student shot a teacher.

“We believe that once we walked in and had the information we had coming in (the school), we had the individual in custody,” Drew said at a news conference outside the school. “We did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting. We had a situation in one particular location where a gunshot was fired.”

It was unclear Friday night how the handgun used in the shooting was obtained or what the “altercation” entailed.

Richneck Elementary is a fully-accredited public school off of Richneck Road in northern Newport News. There were 553 students enrolled at the school in the fall for the 2022-23 school year, according to the Virginia Department of Education.

Newport News Superintendent George Parker III said classes are canceled Monday at the school, “as we work on the mental health of our staff and our students.”

“I’m in awe and I’m in shock and I’m disheartened,” he said at a news conference outside the school.

“Today our students got a lesson in gun violence,” Parker said. “And what guns can do disrupt not only an educational environment but also a family, a community.” But the response of the faculty, he said, “was admirable” in keeping students safe.

After word of the shooting spread, hundreds of parents gathered Friday afternoon outside a reunification center at 128 Deal Drive, anxious to pick up their children. Cars were parked alongside the road for several blocks in all directions.

Officers on the scene separated parents in lines based on their child’s grades. Some parents grumbled about confusing directions and difficulty hearing announcements.

Among the parents waiting outside the reunification center was Joselin Glover, whose fourth-grade son, Carlos, was inside. Glover said she received a text notification from the school reporting one person was shot and one person was in custody.

“My heart stopped,” she said, saying she immediately rushed to the school. “I was freaking out, very nervous. Just wondering if that one person was my son.”

Glover immediately went to the school, with parents told to wait at a nearby church.

Carlos, 9, whose class was in recess at the time of the shooting, said he and his classmates were holed up in the back of a classroom afterward. “Most of the whole class was crying,” Carlos said.

Glover said she received numerous phone calls and texts to make sure she and her son were OK. She said she felt the school handled the situation “very well.”

But other parents said the situation was communicated poorly by the school.

Joseph Hughes and Danyelle Rose, who each had children in the school, said they heard about the incident through social media and friends — not the school.

”I had already parked, and I was already right here with the school called and said, ‘there’s been a shooting,’” Rose said. “I work overnight, so I was sleeping. And my father came to wake me up and told me, and I rushed out of the house. And that’s why I said, ‘Why didn’t the school call us? Like, why didn’t I hear?’”

Hughes said he “dropped everything” when he heard the news and rushed to the school to pick up his children, 7 and 5.

“I never expected anything like this,” he said.

Rose, who has a fifth-grade daughter at the school, fears the situation will take a significant mental toll on the students.

“They’re not physically hurt, but my daughter called me crying,” Rose said. “Because they’re supposed to be safe in school.”

Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones and the other members of city council went to the scene to provide support. He said students were kept in the cafeteria until they could be escorted out to their parents.

“I’m really proud of the police force, the sheriff’s office, and how fast they’ve responded,” Jones said. “It’s been a long day for a lot of people. But at the end of the day, the children’s safety is our top priority.”

Jones promised a full after-action report into what happened. “It’s a dark day for Newport News, but we’re gonna learn from this, and we’re gonna come back stronger,” he said.

Reporters Nour Habib and Ian Munro contributed to this report.

Ian Munro, 757-776-7604, ian.munro@virginiamedia.com; Peter Dujardin, peter.dujardin@dailypress.com; Josh Janney, joshua.janney@virginiamedia.com