Bodycam footage released in Newport News, Virginia, shows moments after 6-year-old boy shot first-grade teacher

Newly unsealed body camera footage from the Newport News Police shows the moments after a 6-year-old Virginia boy shot his elementary school teacher in January 2023. The footage shows the boy being restrained by a reading specialist at Richneck Elementary School. His mother’s attorney described him as having “extreme emotional issues,” and he is seen cursing at points in the video.

The teacher, Abby Zwerner, was his first grade teacher. She was shot and suffered gunshot wounds to her hand and chest. Police say the boy took the unsecured gun from his mother’s purse and brought it to school in his backpack. According to prosecutors, he stood on a dresser drawer to reach the gun in the purse.

The boy’s mother, Deja Taylor, apologized to Zwerner and accepted responsibility for the shooting. She pleaded guilty to a state charge of felony child neglect and was sentenced to two years in prison in December 2023. She was released from state custody to community supervision in May 2026.

A jury awarded Zwerner $10 million in damages in a civil trial against the school’s former assistant principal, Ebony Parker. Zwerner said Parker failed to act on concerns that the boy had brought a gun to school in the hours before the shooting. This was a civil case, not a criminal one.

The boy is now in the custody of his great-grandfather. According to Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard Gwynn, he was not criminally charged in the case (Proverbs 22:6, a plain account of a parent’s duty to secure what a child can reach).

Source: Read the original report