A 6-year-old boy in Virginia, USA, shocked the public in 2023 when he shot and injured his teacher at an elementary school. The footage captured by police body cameras during the incident was recently revealed in court for the first time, leaving everyone astonished.
According to NBC News, the video recorded the scene after the shooting incident on January 6, 2023. At the time, the boy was a student at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, where he shot and injured first-grade teacher Abigail Zwerner.
In the video, an officer asked the boy, “Where is the weapon?”
“It’s over there,” the boy replied while cursing at the officer.
“Do you want trouble? Bring it on, you X (offensive term)!” the boy said.
The boy continued to verbally abuse the officer and even taunted the police, saying he didn’t care if he was sent to jail.
He also directed insults at another teacher who was trying to restrain him.
When asked about the source of the firearm, the boy said, “That’s my mom’s. I stole it from my mom.”
The video captured by the police body cameras was initially sealed during the criminal trial. The judge later agreed to release it but ordered the boy’s face to be blurred to protect his identity.
Court documents revealed that on that day, the boy climbed onto a vanity while his mother was not paying attention, took a Taurus 9mm handgun from her purse, hid it in his backpack, and brought it to school. During a reading class in the afternoon, he pulled out the firearm from his jacket pocket, aimed it at teacher Zwerner from about 3 meters away, and pulled the trigger, causing severe injuries.
The shooting incident shocked the military shipbuilding community and the entire United States at that time. Many wondered how such a young child could resort to shooting his teacher.
During the shooting, Zwerner’s hand was pierced by the bullet, which then hit her chest and remains lodged in her body to this day. Doctors testified in court that the risk of removing the bullet is much higher than leaving it in her body.
Zwerner recalled in court how she thought she was about to die after being shot. She said, “I thought I was going towards heaven, or maybe I was already there. But then everything went black.”
Zwerner has since stopped teaching.
Last year, a jury ruled in a civil lawsuit that former vice principal Ebony Parker ignored warnings about the possibility of a firearm in the boy’s backpack and awarded Zwerner $10 million in compensation, plus interest. Parker was covered by the insurance policy of the Newport News School Board, and the compensation will be paid by the district’s insurance policy.
The jury supported Zwerner’s claim in the lawsuit that she had repeatedly warned Parker about the child possessing a firearm, but Parker took no action.
The jury believed that the shooting incident could have been avoided, and Parker’s gross negligence led to the incident.
However, the criminal charges against Parker were later dropped. She had originally been charged with eight counts of child neglect. In May of this year, a judge ruled that her actions did not constitute a crime under Virginia law, and the case was dismissed. Zwerner then filed a separate civil lawsuit against Parker, seeking $40 million in damages.
Following the shooting incident, the boy’s 29-year-old mother, Deja Taylor, was arrested and charged with child neglect and federal firearms-related charges.
In 2023, she was sentenced to two years in prison for child neglect and an additional 21 months for firearms offenses. She was released in February of this year.
As of now, the boy, now around 9 to 10 years old, still resides in Newport News, Virginia, under the care of his great-grandfather.