NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — In the moments before a 6-year-old Virginia boy shot his teacher, there was no fight, no physical struggle and no warning, authorities said Monday.
“What we know today is that she was providing instruction. He displayed a firearm, he pointed it and he fired one round,” Newport News police Chief Steve Drew said.
Drew, who spoke during a news conference, offered the first detailed description of a shooting that shocked the city and was notable even in a country like the United States that seems inured to constant gun violence. Drew had previously said that the shooting was not accidental and had declined to elaborate.
Drew said he wanted to clarify remarks he made just after the shooting on Friday, when he said there was an “altercation” before the shooting. He said it was more like an “interaction” between the boy and his first-grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School, 25-year-old Abby Zwerner.
But Drew also reiterated that the shooting was “not accidental.”