Boy, 6, shoots teacher during ‘altercation’ inside classroom in Virginia, US
A six-year-old boy has left a teacher with life-threatening injuries after shooting her inside a classroom, US police have said.
No students or other members of staff were injured during the incident, which has been described by officials as “an altercation” and “not an accident”, at Richneck Elementary School in Virginia.
The wounded teacher, who is a woman in her 30s, has been taken to hospital, with Police Chief Steve Drew telling reporters she has started to show some improvement.
He added that the child was found with a handgun inside the classroom, and has been taken into custody.
“This was not an accidental shooting,” Mr Drew said, adding that he wants to know where the gun came from.
“We did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting,” he continued.
“We have a situation in one particular location where a gunshot was fired.”
Newport News Public Schools confirmed on Facebook that parents and students had been reunited at a gymnasium door, and officials have said there will be no classes on Monday.
Pic: AP
Joselin Glover, whose nine-year-old son Carlos attends Richneck Elementary, said she got a text from the school stating that one person had been shot and another was in custody.
“My heart stopped,” she told The Virginian-Pilot newspaper.
“I was freaking out, very nervous. Just wondering if that one person was my son.”
Carlos, who is in fourth grade, was at recess at the time but he said he and his classmates were soon holed up in the back of a classroom.
“Most of the whole class was crying,” Carlos told the newspaper.
Pic: AP
‘My teachers cannot control access to weapons’
Schools superintendent George Parker said he was “shocked” and “disheartened” by the shooting and called for more to be done to stop children getting hold of firearms.
“We need to keep guns out of the hands of our young people,” he said.
“I cannot control access to weapons. My teachers cannot control access to weapons.”
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Mr Parker explained that all school campuses are equipped for random metal detector searches, but they were not deployed at Richneck Elementary on Friday.
Newport News is a city of about 185,000 people in southeastern Virginia known for its shipyard, which builds the nation’s aircraft carriers and other US Navy vessels.
The school has about 550 students, according to the Virginia Department of Education’s website.
Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump he “will not back down” from Russia’s goals in Ukraine during a phone call today, the Kremlin has said.
The Russian president spoke to his US counterpart for almost an hour, and Mr Trump “again raised the issue of an early end to military action” in Ukraine, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
In response, Mr Putin said “Russia will not back down” from its aims there, which include “the elimination of the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs,” Mr Ushakov said.
The phrase “root causes” is shorthand for Moscow’s argument that it was compelled to invade Ukraine in order to prevent the country from joining NATO.
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Trump and Putin’s latest call on Ukraine
Ukraine and its European allies say this is a pretext to justify what they call an imperial-style war, but Mr Trump has previously shown sympathy with Russia.
At the same time, Mr Putin told the US president that Russia is ready to continue negotiating, the aide said.
The Russian president said any prospective peace deal must see Ukraine give up its NATO bid and recognise his country’s territorial gains.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, seen with Mr Trump in June, is pushing for Ukraine to join NATO. Pic: Reuters
He also briefed Mr Trump on agreements made last month, which saw Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners of war and dead soldiers.
Specific dates for the third round of peace talks in Istanbul were not discussed – nor was the US decision to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s call came after the Pentagon confirmed some weapons due to be sent to Ukraine have been held as it reviews military stockpiles.
The paused shipments include air defence missiles and precision-guided artillery, two people familiar with the situation have said.
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The decision led to Ukraine calling in the acting US envoy to Kyiv on Wednesday to underline the importance of military aid from Washington.
Kyiv also cautioned that the move would weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against intensifying Russian airstrikes and battlefield advances.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s phone call was the sixth they have publicly disclosed since the US president returned to the White House in January.
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