Gun in 3rd-grader’s backpack goes off in class, VA cops say. Parents charged
A third grade student unwittingly set off a gun in class at a Virginia elementary school, deputies said. Now, his parents have been arrested and charged.
The gun went off just before 11 a.m. Monday, April 7, when the student at Lee Hill Elementary School in Fredericksburg reached in his bag and accidentally pulled the trigger, the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office said in an April 8 news release.
The teacher evacuated all 26 students from the classroom and alerted the school resource officer who was onsite, police said. No one was harmed.
“School staff immediately followed safety protocols that included securing the weapon, safely removing students from the classroom to the cafeteria, going into a school-wide hold, and conducting a threat assessment,” a Spotsylvania County Public Schools spokesperson told McClatchy News in an email.
According to deputies, the student found the gun at home and placed it in his school bag.
The student’s parents, whom McClatchy News is not naming to protect the identity of the student, were charged with “recklessly leave a loaded, unsecured firearm so as to endanger the life or limb of a child under the age of 14 (misdemeanor) and while having custody of a child, willfully or negligently cause or permit the life of such child to be endangered (felony),” deputies said.
They were released on a $5,000 bond and are set to appear in court April 11, deputies said.
Fredericksburg is about a 60-mile drive north of Richmond.
This story was originally published April 8, 2025 at 12:07 PM with the headline "Gun in 3rd-grader’s backpack goes off in class, VA cops say. Parents charged."
