6-Year-Old's Gun Jammed After Shooting VA Teacher: Report Finds

NEWPORT NEWS, VA — The gun a 6-year-old boy used to shoot his teacher last year jammed after firing the first shot, according to reports citing newly released special grand jury findings. Other details revealed in the report highlighted "shocking" failures by administrators leading up to the shooting at Richmond Elementary School in Newport News.

According to a copy of the report obtained by The Virginian-Pilot, there were seven bullets in the gun the 6-year-old used to shoot teacher Abigail Zwerner. There were also 15 other students in the classroom.

"The firearm had jammed due to his lack of strength on the first shot, inhibiting him from shooting Ms. (Abigail) Zwerner or anyone else again," the report said. "The firearm had a full magazine with seven additional bullets ready to fire if not for the jamming."

On Jan. 6, 2023, Zwerner was teaching her first-grade class when one of her students took his mother's gun from his backpack and shot Zwerner, striking her in the hand and chest. The shot resulted in severe injuries, including a lung collapse.

Zwerner was able to safely get the other students out of the classroom before she ran to an administrative office and collapsed.

Police Chief Steve Drew has repeatedly characterized the shooting as "intentional," saying the boy aimed at Zwerner before firing one round.

In the 24-page report, the 11-member grand jury also suggested authorities launch a criminal probe into Richneck’s former assistant principal, Ebony Parker, who was warned three times on the day of the shooting that the boy had a weapon but failed to intervene, the Washington Post reported.

"Dr. Parker’s lack of response and initiative given the seriousness of the information she had received on Jan. 6, 2023, is shocking,” the panel wrote in the report.

The boy had a history of violence at the school, including that he strangled and choked his kindergarten teacher, Zwerner alleged in a $40 million lawsuit filed against the Newport News school district.

In a separate lawsuit, several Richneck families claim school leaders did not provide Zwerner with the resources she needed despite the boy's history of violent behavior that posed a “longstanding risk” to others at the school.

In its report, the panel detailed "glaring discipline issues, security failures and ignored warnings that allowed the boy to sneak a weapon inside" the school. It also wrote the boy should have been unenrolled from the school, but lapses by administrators allowed him back on campus, the Post reported.

On Monday, it was announced the grand jury charged Parker in March with reckless care for a child, a felony. Parker faces eight counts of child neglect after the shooting. Each of the charges is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Since the shooting, the boy's mother — 26-year-old Deja Taylor — has been sentenced to two years in prison after she pleaded guilty to felony child neglect.

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