NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A teacher was injured in a shooting Friday afternoon at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, according to police and school officials.
No students were injured but an adult was taken to the hospital. Police believe they have the person responsible in custody and said there is no longer an active shooter.
A Newport News school district spokesperson confirmed the adult is a teacher. The extent of the teacher’s injuries were unknown.
“We believe that once we walked in and had the information we had coming in (the school), we had the individual in custody,” Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said. “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.”
Drew declined to provide the age of the suspected shooter and would not say if that person was a student.
Richneck Elementary is a fully accredited public school located off of Richneck Road in north 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.
Hundreds of parents were waiting outside a reunification center, located at 128 Deal Drive, anxious to be reunited with their children Friday afternoon. Parked 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 are grumbled about confusing directions and difficulty hearing announcement at the scene.
Police are requesting that parents and guardians have identification ready when they arrive to pick up their children.
“We’re beginning the process to reunite parents with students,” police said in a news release. “More information will be released when it is available.”
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(Reporters Nour Habib and Eliza Noe contributed to this report.)
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