WATCH: Newly Unsealed Bodycam Shows 6-Year-Old Cursing at Officers After Shooting His Teacher

The Shooting at Richneck Elementary

Newly unsealed police bodycam footage shows the immediate aftermath of the January 2023 shooting at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia. A six-year-old first grader shot his teacher, Abby Zwerner, inside the school. Zwerner was hospitalized for two weeks. The video captures officers entering the classroom as adults dealt with the child and tried to establish what had happened. It shows a volatile scene while an elderly female teacher held the child on her lap. The footage records the first moments of a serious classroom crisis.

What the Bodycam Captures

When officers arrived, an elderly female teacher had the child restrained on her lap. The boy directed repeated profanity at the officers and the teacher. The language is explicit, so the most offensive insults are not repeated here. A teacher told police she had called 911 and said she had warned the assistant principal about a threat earlier. The bodycam captures officers asking questions while the adults worked to keep the child restrained and understand what had taken place.

The Child’s Statements

The child made several statements during the exchange. After a teacher asked whether anything had hurt him when he fired the gun, he said, “I stole that from my mom!” He also said, “I shot my teacher!” When an officer asked his name, the child responded with a profane challenge instead of giving it. He continued directing insults at the people around him, including the teacher holding him. These moments document the behavior officers encountered inside the classroom.

The Legal Aftermath

In 2023, the Newport News Commonwealth’s prosecutor decided the child would not face charges. The boy’s family said he suffered from an “acute disability” and was under a school care plan that included his mother or father attending school with him and accompanying him to class every day. In April 2023, the boy’s mother, Deja Taylor, was charged with felony child neglect and a misdemeanor for leaving a firearm that could endanger a child. The prosecutor’s decision applied to the six-year-old, while Taylor’s charges involved the separate allegations described in the case.

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