Classroom horror as 8-year-old girl is shot by accident by schoolmate in Seattle
A YOUNG girl is in critical condition after a gun in the schoolbag of a 9-year-old classmate was discharged by accident during class time.
The third-grade girl named as Amina Bowman was shot in the stomach yesterday at her Seattle elementary school when a loaded handgun in the schoolbag of her classmate was discharged by accident according to police. The classmates were packing their schoolbags getting ready for the final bell at 1.30 pm when the shot rang out.
The girl was in critical condition last night in a Seattle hospital after undergoing two hour surgery. The 9-year-old boy who had the gun in his bag has been detained in a juvenile detention centre. He is under investigation for unlawful possession of a firearm, bringing a dangerous weapon onto school grounds and third-degree assault.
A husband of one of the teachers at Bremerton's Armin Jahr Elementary School told reporters: "I don't know a lot about the kid other than my wife's been coming home talking about him, and he's been a real problem in the class, and she's been very concerned about it.”
According to other parents the student was recently moved to the school from another one.
The school was put into lock down after the shooting and all students were contained within their class while police carried out investigations.
"They were all huddled together under the teacher's desk," according to one mother. "A little over an hour was like an eternity to me, just not knowing." What "I keep wondering," said another parent Sarah Sisk, is "how did a third-grader get hold of a loaded gun?"
- Independent.ie reporters
