A six-year-old boy who allegedly shot his teacher will not be charged, despite initial reports claiming the shooting "was not accidental."
As reported by CNN, the shooting took place on Friday, January 6 at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, and the six-year-old shooter was taken into police custody.
The teacher, 25-year-old Abby Zwerner, was struck in the abdomen by the bullet and transported to the hospital in critical condition. She was released from the hospital after more than a week.
Police Chief Steve Drew said via a news conference at the time that the shooting was not deemed as "accidental," and that "we have been in contact with our commonwealth attorney and some other entities to help us best get services to this young man."
The six-year-old boy will not be charged for the shooting as new reports have revealed.
Newport News, Virginia, Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard Gwynn told CCN affiliate WTKR: "After researching this issue thoroughly, we do not believe the law supports charging and convicting a six-year-old with aggravated assault.
"I can say the prosecutorial efforts are focused on determining what the facts are, applying those facts to the law, and determining whether we can charge anyone with a crime that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt."
In an interview with NBC news, Gwynn said that the "prospect that a six-year-old can stand trial is problematic," due to the child being too young to understand the legal system.
Though the attorney added: "Once we analyze all the facts, we will charge any person or persons that we believe we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt committed a crime."
Per the Guardian, Virginia law states that six-year-olds cannot be tried as adults, nor can they be sentenced to the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice - but parental custody rights can be revoked.
Within the last 17 months, there have been three school shootings on Richneck school district property, with 145 school shootings in the US leading to injuries or fatalities since 2018, per Education Week.
Following the shooting of Zwerner, police chief Steve Drew updated citizens via a Facebook live briefing about the ongoing case.
"We had a lot of witnesses, a lot of students, a lot of children to interview and that took a long process," he said. "It’s not something we wanted to rush through."
Zwerner reportedly told the other children in the class to flee the room after the six-year-old revealed the weapon, and when attempting to remove it from his possession a round was fired.
It is claimed that some staff members at the school were aware that the child had a weapon on the day of the shooting.
Following the attack, the boy's family told the district that he "suffers from an acute disability and was under a care plan at the school that included his mother or father attending school with him and accompanying him to class every day."
They added that this was the first week that they had not attended class with him and said that they shall regret it for the rest of their lives.
