A 6-year-old first grader who shot his teacher in the chest at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, in 2023, swore at police officers and admitted to stealing a gun from his mother, a newly released police body camera video shows.
“Where is the weapon?” one officer can be heard asking in the nearly three-minute video, to which the boy responded, “It’s over there,” while he continued to curse.
“My mom had that. I stole that from my mom,” the boy told the officers, pointing to the gun.
When one officer asked the boy his name, he replied, “If you want a piece of me, come get it all.”
The boy later added, “I don’t care if you call backup. I don’t care if I go to jail.”
Abigail Zwerner, the now 29-year-old former teacher who was shot by the boy, still carries a bullet — that also tore through her hand — in her chest. She filed a $40 million lawsuit against school administrators and the school board, claiming they were aware of the boy’s “history of random violence,” yet did not do enough to address concerns that the boy had a gun in his possession on the day she was shot.
Last November, a Virginia jury awarded Zwerner $10 million in damages after finding former Assistant Principal Ebony Parker grossly negligent. During that trial, a doctor testified that removing the bullet from Zwerner’s chest would be far more dangerous than leaving it in place, according to NBC News.
Parker and her attorneys are appealing the jury award, arguing the Newport News Circuit Court made several legal errors in allowing the case to go to a jury.
Recalling the moment she was shot by the boy in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, Zwerner said she thought she had died.
“I just will never forget the look on his face that he gave me while he pointed the gun directly at me,” she said.
The boy’s mother, 29-year-old Deja Taylor, was sentenced to 21 months in prison in 2023 after pleading guilty to two federal firearm violations.
Taylor told ABC News in 2023 that her son was on medication for ADHD at the time of the shooting.
“He has ADHD. Some are able to have a very mild rate, but he’s off the wall, doesn’t sit still ever. He started medication and was meeting his goal academically,” Taylor said.
Taylor was released in May, but her son is in the custody of his great-grandfather, Calvin Taylor, a retired U.S. Army drill sergeant.
The sergeant told WAVY that the boy was a troublemaker long before the shooting. He recalled that when his great-grandson was only 5 years old, he took his mother’s car keys, started her car, and crashed into two parked cars. He also argued that social services failed to help his granddaughter when she needed it the most.
“He was a victim before that date,” the sergeant claimed. “Because contrary to popular belief, I know they said that my granddaughter neglected him and placed him in precarious situations. But there were instances where she tried to get help. I drove her to certain places. My other daughters drove her to places to acquire help, even the safety plan that they put in place after the car incident. There was no follow-up.”
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