US: School of 6-year-old who shot lover knew he might have been armed

The American school where a six-year-old boy shot his teacher had been warned in advance that he may have been armed and searched his bag but found nothing, local authorities said on Friday.

A week ago, a first-grader at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, West Virginia, seriously injured his 25-year-old mistress Abigail Zwerner with a handgun legally purchased by her mother.

The student’s bag still wanted

During a virtual meeting Thursday night with the parents of the campus, the person in charge of school authorities, George Parker, revealed to them that the school had been informed in advance “about the possible presence of a weapon” in the bag of this student.

He told them that “the bag had been searched by an employee (…) and that no weapon had been found,” said his spokeswoman Michelle Price, confirming information from the local channel Wavy TV.

“A school employee became aware of the possible presence of a weapon prior to the shooting, but Newport News police were not alerted,” said police spokeswoman Kelly King.

Authorities did not say how they knew the student might be armed.

The criminally irresponsible child

Within hours of this search, the boy brandished a Taurus 9mm pistol and opened fire on his teacher. His condition was critical at the time of his hospitalization, but he later stabilized.

Local authorities have decided to temporarily withdraw custody of the child from his parents and admit him to a medical center, pending a decision on a possible prosecution.

Given his young age, he should be considered criminally irresponsible, despite police describing the shooting as “intentional.”

Nearly 400 million weapons in circulation in the country

Their parents, on the other hand, could be accused of violating a local law that prohibits leaving loaded weapons within the reach of children under 14 years of age.

The United States, where there are nearly 400 million guns in circulation, regularly suffers from school shootings. The latest tragedy dates back to May, when a teenager murdered 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

But it is very rare that shooters are so young. Some fifteen children under the age of ten have opened fire in schools since the 1970s, according to the database of researcher David Riedman, who is a reference on the subject.