Pregnant teacher killed in Richmond shooting

RICHMOND, Ind. (WISH) - A pregnant Richmond teacher who was shot Monday morning in a car died from her injuries, and her baby did not survive.

Police found the sixth-grade teacher, just weeks away from delivering a baby, shot several times inside a vehicle at South 20th and G streets, on the south side of Richmond.

When Tonawanda Thompson didn't show up for work, it didn't raise suspicion, at first.

“The initial thought was that the baby had come early,” Fayette County School Corp. Superintendent Russell Hodges said. “It’s really been difficult. We are all hurting.”

Thompson taught at Fayette Central Elementary School in Connersville. Hodges said she also left behind a teen daughter.

An autopsy was scheduled, and police were still seeking a suspect. Investigators searched her home, but declined to say what they found.

Hodges said ISTEP testing has been postponed for Thompson's class, and grief counselors will be on hand at school for those who need it Tuesday. If the entire school is having a tough time coping, the test will be postponed for all, Hodges said.