The 6-year-old Virginia boy who shot and wounded his teacher with his mother’s gun bragged about the shooting to a school employee saying, “I shot that b*tch dead,” according to unsealed search warrants.
“I did it, I shot that b*tch dead. I got my mom’s gun last night,” he said.
The student’s mom, Deja Taylor, 25, has pleaded guilty in federal court to using marijuana while owning a firearm. She also faces state charges of felony child neglect and reckless storage of a firearm.
First-grade teacher, Abby Zwerner, was shot in the chest by the six-year-old but had the strength and clarity of mind to tell her other students to “run away.”
Sebastian Gonzalez-Hernandez, a parent of another student in the classroom, said Zwerner “screamed at her kids to run away, even after she’d been shot she was thinking about the safety of her children.”
“She is an amazing teacher, so dedicated. My son absolutely loves her, and we’re devastated about what’s happened. We are all thinking of her and hoping that she gets better soon,” Gonzalez-Hernandez added.
25-year-old Zwerner, of Williamsburg, Virginia, was critically injured from the shooting in her Richneck Elementary School classroom. No students were injured in the incident
Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said:
“The teacher’s injuries are still considered life-threatening but there was some improvement in the last update we got. We’re beginning the process to reunite parents with students.
“We did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting.
“We have a situation in one particular location where a gunshot was fired.”
“The No. 1 process right now is to make sure we have counselors with our most precious thing we have, right — our students — and to get them back acquainted with their parents. That’s what we’re doing right now.”
Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones said:
“It’s been a long day for a lot of people, but at the end of the day the children’s safety is our top priority.
“All of the students are safe,” Newport News Public Schools said. “The perpetrator is in police custody.”
Virginia 6-year-old boy who shot and wounded teacher later boasted, ‘I shot that bitch dead’ https://t.co/BrIvs1PbdD pic.twitter.com/0SMnWwhk4h
— New York Post (@nypost) August 9, 2023
BREAKING UPDATE: A 6-year-old student opened fire during an altercation in an elementary school shooting that left a teacher injured earlier Friday, police and school officials say. https://t.co/0M1qWyvQck
— ABC News (@ABC) January 6, 2023
