The newly public footage captures officers entering the classroom after Abby Zwerner was shot at Richneck Elementary School in 2023.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Newly released police body-camera footage shows the chaotic moments after a 6-year-old student shot first-grade teacher Abby Zwerner inside her Richneck Elementary School classroom in January 2023, including the child speaking defiantly as officers arrived and recovered the handgun.
The less-than-three-minute video gives the public a new view of a shooting that drew national attention because of the child’s age and later led to criminal cases, a multimillion-dollar civil verdict and scrutiny of how school officials responded to warnings that the student might have a gun. The footage had previously been shown during court proceedings but was not publicly available until this week.
The shooting happened Jan. 6, 2023, while Zwerner was teaching her first-grade class. Authorities said the boy fired one round, striking Zwerner in the hand before the bullet entered her chest. Despite her serious injuries, Zwerner helped students leave the classroom before she received medical treatment. She spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and later underwent multiple surgeries.
The newly released video begins after Zwerner and the other children had left the classroom. A reading specialist, Amy Kovac, is seen holding the boy as officers enter. The child repeatedly uses profanities, challenges adults around him and tells officers he does not care about going to jail. He also tells police that the gun belonged to his mother and that he had taken it from her.
An officer retrieves the handgun from the classroom while other officers speak with the boy. The footage does not show the shooting itself. Because it involves a young child and the immediate aftermath of a violent incident, the publicly distributed video obscures the boy’s identity. He was not criminally charged because of his age.
Authorities determined that the handgun belonged to the boy’s mother, Deja Taylor. She later pleaded guilty to felony child neglect in state court and received a two-year prison sentence. In a separate federal case, Taylor was sentenced to 21 months after pleading guilty to charges involving marijuana use while possessing a firearm and making a false statement about her drug use when purchasing the gun. The sentences stemmed from separate state and federal proceedings.
The shooting also triggered extensive litigation over the response of school administrators before the gunfire. Zwerner alleged that school employees had raised concerns during the day that the student might have a firearm. She sued former assistant principal Ebony Parker, arguing that Parker failed to act on repeated warnings before the shooting.
In November 2025, a Virginia jury found Parker grossly negligent in the civil case and awarded Zwerner $10 million in damages. The civil verdict was separate from a criminal prosecution in which Parker faced eight felony child neglect counts over her alleged response to warnings on the day of the shooting.
That criminal case ended in May 2026 when Newport News Circuit Court Judge Rebecca Robinson dismissed all eight charges during Parker’s trial. Robinson ruled that prosecutors had not established conduct constituting a crime under Virginia law. The ruling ended the criminal prosecution against Parker but did not alter the earlier civil jury verdict in Zwerner’s favor.
The body-camera footage released this week adds a new public record of the immediate police response but does not change the legal outcomes already reached in the cases stemming from the shooting. Zwerner survived her injuries, Taylor received state and federal prison sentences, and the criminal charges against Parker were dismissed.
Author note: Last updated October 7, 2026.