‘I don’t care if I go to jail’: Video shows a Virginia first-grader cursing at police after shooting his teacher, then saying where the gun came from

Newly released police body camera video shows a boy, 6, telling officers “I don’t care if I go to jail” moments after he shot his first-grade teacher at a Virginia elementary school, according to NBC News. He also told officers where the gun came from.

The shooting happened on January 6, 2023, at Richneck Elementary in Newport News. The bullet went through the teacher’s hand and lodged in her chest, and it is still there, the outlet says. When an officer asked where the weapon was, the boy said it was over there and cursed at the officer. He then said his mother owned it: “I stole that from my mom.”

A judge allowed the footage to be released after it was sealed during a criminal trial, but ordered the boy’s face blurred. A local TV report says the video runs nearly three minutes and that two newspapers asked the court to unseal it. The same report says a lawsuit alleged that school employees warned administrators several times that day that the boy might have a weapon.

What Virginia law says about guns and children

Virginia’s official code makes it a misdemeanor to leave a loaded firearm unsecured in a reckless way that endangers a child under 14, according to the state’s code for that offense. The offense is a Class 1 misdemeanor. A separate section of the code covers felony child neglect. That section applies to a parent, guardian or other person responsible for the care of a child under 18 whose willful act or omission was so gross, wanton and culpable that it showed reckless disregard for human life.

It is a Class 6 felony, and it does not define who counts as responsible for a child’s care. That section was at the center of the criminal case against the school’s former assistant principal, who faced eight felony charges of neglecting a child, one for each bullet in the gun. Judge Rebecca Robinson dismissed the case on May 21, the fourth day of trial, after prosecutors rested. She said the case was a “mashup” of legal theories and that the current statute was not clear on whether a crime had been committed.

She added that the General Assembly would need to write new laws or clarify the existing ones. The teacher later won a civil case. A jury gave her a $10 million award last year after finding that the former assistant principal disregarded warnings about a gun in the boy’s bag. The jury also found her gross negligence caused the shooting. That verdict has been appealed.

The boy’s mother received prison time: two years in state court over the neglect case and 21 months in federal court over the weapons case. Federal prosecutors said investigators found no lockbox, trigger lock or key.