NEWPORT NEWS, VA - JANUARY 07: A school sign wishing students a "Happy New Year" is seen outside Richneck Elementary School on January 7, 2023 in Newport News, Virginia. A 6-year-old student was taken into custody after reportedly shooting a teacher during an altercation in a classroom at Richneck Elementary School on Friday. The teacher, a woman in her 30s, suffered “life-threatening” injuries and remains in critical condition, according to police reports. (Photo by Jay Paul/Getty Images)
In 2023, a 6-year-old student shocked his Virginia community after bringing a loaded gun to school and shooting his teacher, Abby Zwerner. For three years, footage capturing the moments after the incident remained sealed. This week, the video showing the interaction between Richneck Elementary School officials, police, and the young student was made public.
Though the shooting took place several years ago, with several legal cases following it, the footage of the 6-year-old student shooter only appeared online this week. It’s a police body-camera video, dated January 6, 2023, and recorded minutes after the child shot Abby Zwerner, and police arrived on the scene. The teacher had reportedly managed to evacuate her students and arrived at the principal’s office to warn them before collapsing.
Why is it being released now? It’s public record. And the Virginian-Pilot and the Daily Press reportedly filed a motion months ago to get it unsealed. A judge had placed it under seal during the trial because it depicted a minor. But the criminal case against the former school principal was dropped in May.
In the footage, uploaded to YouTube, police found the child in a classroom with Reading Specialist Amy Kovac, who was restraining him in a bear hug while the gun was on the floor. The video hears the 6-year-old student repeatedly cussing at Kovac and admitting to taking the gun from his mother. “I dont care about going to jail,” he said at one point.
Following the shooting, Deja Nicole Taylor was charged with child neglect in Virginia. She was revealed as the 6-year-old student’s mother. The 9mm gun used in the shooting was hers. Her son had reportedly taken it out of her purse, which was on a dresser, and taken it to school in his backpack. Taylor admitted she didn’t keep the gun trigger-locked or secured in a lockbox. She pleaded guilty to felony child neglect in August 2023. A few months later, a judge sentenced Deja Taylor to five years, with three years suspended.
She was ordered to two years in prison with follow-up probation. Additionally, Taylor faced two gun charges for lying about marijuana use on the firearm application. She pleaded guilty to both and got a 21-month sentence in federal prison. Ultimately, her federal sentences were ordered to run consecutively, totaling nearly four years in prison. Taylor is no longer in prison as of May of this year and is under community supervision and probation, according to WBTV. Her six-year-old was reportedly last in the custody of his great-grandfather and attending another school.
As previously reported, Abby Zwerner was 25 and a first-grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School when her 6-year-old student shot her. The child had brought the handgun to school and reportedly fired one shot in Abby’s direction from about 10 feet away, per The Washington Post. The bullet went through her left hand and into her chest, barely missing her heart. Ultimately, it got lodged in her aorta and caused one of her lung’s to collapse. She spent two weeks in the hospital, but the bullet remains inside her body due to its delicate location. Also, her left hand reportedly still has trouble with simple tasks like opening a bottle, according to PEOPLE.
In the time after the shooting, Abby Zwerner reportedly underwent six surgeries in connection to it. She never went returned to the classroom, choosing to pivot to the cosmetology industry instead.
Last November, Abby was awarded $10 million in a civil lawsuit against the school principal, Ebony Parker. She had sought $40 million. Also, earlier this year, the criminal case against Parker was dropped after a judge dismissed the felony child neglect charges, 8 counts, against her, CBS News reported in May.
