As previously reported by REVOLT, on Jan. 6, a 6-year-old boy shot his 25-year-old teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia. At the time, a press conference was held where Police Chief Steve Drew said, “This was not an accidental shooting.”
The child and his first-grade instructor, Abby Zwerner, reportedly had a history of tension and had a dispute just before he critically injured her with a gunshot wound to the chest. An article published by NBC News yesterday (Feb. 6) highlights a history of troubling behavior shown by the minor. Diane Toscano, an attorney for Zwerner, has informed the Newport News school district that her client will be suing after her safety concerns were supposedly ignored. Court filings claim the child cursed at staff and teachers, tried to whip students with his belt and even choked another teacher “until she couldn’t breathe.” The same week Zwerner was shot, the teacher said the little boy “slammed” her cellphone, causing it to break.
A one-day suspension was issued to the 6-year-old, but when he returned to Zwerner’s class the following day, he pulled out a 9mm handgun and shot her in the chest. It was previously revealed that he brought the firearm from his home after his mother legally purchased the weapon. “It is a miracle that more people were not harmed. The shooter spent his entire recess with a gun in his pocket, a gun that was loaded and ready to fire… while lots of first-grade students played,” the attorney noted to the Virginia school district. The instructor who was choked said that the incident happened in 2021 as she was sitting and the child came up behind her. She added that he had to be pulled off by a teaching assistant.
Before Zwerner was wounded, several administrators received reports of the boy having a loaded weapon on school grounds. “If Assistant Principal [Ebony] Parker had acted on the information she was provided, then the shooting of Ms. Zwerner would not have happened,” the notice read. Toscano said on the morning of the near-fatal incident, her client approached Parker “to advise her that the shooter seemed more ‘off’ than usual and was in a violent mood.” The kid also allegedly “angrily stared down” the school security guard in the cafeteria. Parker resigned from the Virginia school last month.