NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - People in Newport News spoke out at a city council meeting Tuesday night. It was the first meeting since a shooting at Richneck Elementary School last Friday, where a six-year-old boy shot Abby Zwerner, a teacher at the school.
READ: TIMELINE: Teacher talking again after being shot by 6-year-old Newport News student, sources confirm
“I’m asking y’all, I’m begging y’all, please, please you’ve got to do something. This is not right,” one resident said before Newport News city leaders. “Help our babies. This is a 6-year-old boy. Help their parents. My prayers go out to the schoolteacher.”
Tuesday night’s meeting was also the first with new faces on Newport News city council, with Mayor Phillip Jones, Vice Mayor Curtis Bethany, and council members Cleon Long and John Eley sworn into their positions.
“My heart still goes out to Abby and to her family, that’s sort of number one on my mind,” Mayor Jones said in an exclusive interview with News 3 following Tuesday’s meeting.
Tuesday, Jones also commended first responders and school staff who helped last Friday.
[I] just want to say how grateful I am for their speedy action on the scene,” Jones said.
Meanwhile, other council members laid out their message to residents.
“We’ve been in a close relationship with the school board and having conversations, as well as with the police department, to make sure incidents like this don’t happen again,” Eley said.
“We need to lift up all of our educators, all of our young people throughout the course of the city,” council member Marcellus Harris said. “Even though it happened at that one school, it has impacted every school, not just here in Newport News, but throughout our region, and from what I’m seeing, throughout the nation.”
The city council’s comments followed comments made by residents reacting to what happened at Richneck Elementary last Friday.
“I hope, through your strategy, that it includes counselors and community involvement more in the schools, as well as metal detectors,” one resident said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Along with supporting Zwerner, Jones shared with News 3 other things that were top of mind for him regarding last Friday’s shooting now that he’s been officially sworn in as the city's mayor.
“Ensuring that the child get all of the support that he’s going to need,” Jones said. “Working with my school board, as a partner, as they review any procedures and policies that they’re going to have to update, and then finally, it’s working with city council to build a team.”
Tuesday night, many residents’ comments included support for Jones and the new city council members, welcoming them into their roles.
Vice Mayor Bethany also emphasized support for a GoFundMe set up to help Zwerner.
READ: GoFundMe started for Abby Zwerner, first-grade teacher who was shot
