Virginia teacher begged students to run to safety after she was shot, critically injured by 6-year-old boy: report

According to the Daily Mail, Sebastian Gonzalez-Hernandez, a parent of another student in the classroom, said Zwerner "screamed at her kids to run away" and "even after she'd been shot she was thinking about the safety of her children."

25-year-old Zwerner, of Williamsburg, Virginia, was critically injured after the boy fired a single shot into her chest around 2pm Friday in her Richneck Elementary School classroom. No students were injured in the incident and Zwerner was transported to Riverside Regional Medical Center where she remains in critical condition.

Gonzalez-Hernandez said of his own six-year-old, "My son didn't see what happened, he heard the gunshot go off, and turned around to see Miss Zwerner on the floor."

"She is an amazing teacher, so dedicated. My son absolutely loves her, and we're devastated about what's happened. We are all thinking of her and hoping that she gets better soon," Gonzalez-Hernandez added.

Police Chief Steve Drew said at a 5:30 pm news conference, "This was not an accidental shooting."

"It was in a classroom, an altercation took place there. 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 added.

One of the students' grandmother, who asked to remain anonymous, told the DailyMail that a student brought "shiny gold bullets" into the classroom last week and threatened to bring a gun, but she was not sure if it was the same student who shot Zwerner.

Police arrived within minutes of the initial call to authorities and students were reunited with parents in the school gymnasium.

Another student in the classroom told the Daily Press that the boy shot Zwerner "on purpose."

The school's superintendent, George Parker, said that the school does have a metal detector but they do not use it every day on every student.