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Community Forum · Est. 2006
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#1
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10-08-2026, 11:51 AM
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6 Year Old Student That Shot Female Teacher Shouts Profanities During Arrest
January 6, 2023, a shooting occured at Richneck Elementary School in Newport, Virginia. Abby/Abigail Zwerner, the first-grade teacher was shot in the hand and chest by her 6-year-old student while sitting at a reading table and survived severe injuries requiring multiple surgeries and was awarded a $10 million civil judgment. The newly released video shows reading specialist Amy Kovac holding him in a bear hug while he shouts profanities and states he took the gun from home. He faced no criminal charges. The boy's mother, Deja Nicole Taylor was sentenced to a total of nearly four years in prison, combining a 21-month federal sentence for firearm and drug violations with a two-year state sentence for felony child neglect who left the 9mm handgun unsecured. Deja Nicole Taylor made false statements on a firearm purchase form regarding her marijuana use and illegally possessing a firearm as a drug user. The former Richneck Elementary assistant principal Ebony Parker faced criminal child neglect charges for allegedly ignoring multiple warnings about the student having a gun on the day of the shooting, but a judge dismissed all criminal charges against her in May 2026. She remains involved in legal appeals regarding the civil judgment. The roughly three-minute video was initially introduced as a prosecution exhibit during the 2026 trial proceedings. It was kept under seal to protect the minor's identity until media organizations successfully petitioned the court to unseal it. Following the January 2023 shooting, the child was placed under an emergency custody order and spent hundreds of days receiving court-ordered evaluation and inpatient psychological treatment. Now around 9 or 10 years old, he has been living in the care of his great-grandfather in Newport News and enrolled in a different educational setting. |