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A 6-year-old shooter raises difficult questions for the criminal justice system : NPR


Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Va., where a six-year-old student shot and injured his teacher on Friday.

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Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Va., where a six-year-old student shot and injured his teacher on Friday.

Jay Paul / Getty Images

Police say a 6-year-old student shot his teacher at a Virginia elementary school on Friday, and authorities face a difficult and uncomfortable question: Should they prosecute his crimes? What is a first grader like?

The investigation is ongoing into the shooting at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Va., but police were unwavering in determining that the attack was intentional.

“She was giving instructions. He raised his gun. He pointed the gun and fired one shot,” said Steve Drew, the city’s police chief. “This shooting was not accidental. It was intentional.”

Authorities said the child bought the gun at home and brought it to school in a backpack. The gun was legally purchased by his mother.

The victim, 25-year-old teacher Abigail Zwerner, was hit in the arm and chest and is currently in a stable condition. Police said at least 16 other children were in the room at the time.

The shooter and most of the witnesses were so young that police had to work with juvenile systems specialists, child psychologists and Child Protective Services to conduct investigations, police the chief said Monday.

When asked if authorities would pursue charges – against the child or his parents or guardians – Drew replied that no decision would be made until the investigation was completed. completed.

Young children are generally protected from prosecution

“Clearly, this is a tragedy on every level,” said Julie Ellen McConnell, a law professor at the University of Richmond who directs the school’s Child Protection Clinic.

All 50 states, including Virginia, have juvenile justice systems.

But with a child so young, traditional principles like punishment, accountability, and recovery “don’t really apply,” McConnell said. “As a 6-year-old, he doesn’t have the intellectual capacity to even understand how to form criminal intent like this.”

Virginia law does not set a minimum age for criminal defendants. (State juvenile detention facilities have a minimum age of 11.)

But young children are generally protected from criminal prosecution under a legal doctrine known as “infant protection”. The accused committing the crime must have the jurisdiction to try; Such a determination would be a challenge for a 6-year-old, says McConnell.

Instead, authorities could pursue a “petition for a child in need of services,” she said. Such a statement would allow the court to order social services, including counseling.

The child’s parents may face legal liability

Police said the gun used in the shooting – a 9mm Taurus pistol – was legally purchased by the child’s mother.

Police said the gun was stored in the family home, though they declined to share more details about how it was secured or how the child knew where the gun was.

There, the child retrieved the gun, put it in a backpack and brought it to school, sheriff Drew said.

In Virginia — a state that has historically allowed gun policy — it’s a misdemeanor to “recklessly leave a loaded, unsecured firearm” in such a way that it could injure a child under 14 years of age.

Experts say the rule is designed for situations where one child harms another. In this case, the victim was 25 years old.

“Allowing a minor to have access to a gun, however, is not a guarantee,” said Allison Anderman, senior counsel and local policy director at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. could endanger the life or limbs of the child himself”. “So I think this law can be used to hold adults accountable.”

Otherwise, prosecutors could rely on the state’s criminal neglect statutes to bring a case against the parents, McConnell said.

Police said the child is currently being treated at a medical facility under an emergency court order.

“A judge will decide whether we continue with that detention order, whether treatment or evaluation continues,” the sheriff said, “or what the next steps might be. .”

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