VA Teacher Shot By 6-Year-Old Testifies In $40M Lawsuit Trial: 'I Thought I Died'

NEWPORT NEWS, VA — A former Virginia teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student nearly three years ago at a Newport News elementary school testified in her $40 million lawsuit on Thursday that she thought she had died.

Abby Zwerner was a teacher at Richneck Elementary School in January 2023 when she was shot in the hand and chest by a 6-year-old boy who was also her student.

“I thought I had died. I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in heaven,” Zwerner testified. "But then it all got black. And so, I then thought I wasn’t going there. And then my next memory is I see two co-workers around me and I process that I’m hurt and they’re putting pressure on where I’m hurt.”

The student's mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for felony child neglect and federal weapons charges. Her son told authorities he got his mother’s handgun by climbing onto a drawer to reach the top of a dresser, where the firearm was in his mom’s purse.

Zwerner, who is no longer a teacher, is suing the school's former assistant principal, Ebony Parker, for $40 million, alleging the administrator ignored multiple warnings that the boy had a gun and posed a threat.

Parker is the only defendant in the lawsuit. A judge previously dismissed the district’s superintendent and the school principal as defendants.

Parker faces a separate criminal trial next month on eight counts of felony child neglect. Each of the counts is punishable by up to five years in prison upon conviction.

During Thursday's testimony, Zwerner answered questions on the stand for more than an hour. She also described the physical trauma she has endured since the shooting, including that she has never regained full function in her left hand, according to reports.

“Overall, I would say I do struggle with things, doing things,” she said, like opening a bag of chips and water bottles, according to a CNN report.

She also described the lingering emotional effects of her experience and how she has distanced herself from family and friends.

“I just want to stay home,” she said.

In the lawsuit against Parker, Zwerner claimed Parker chose to "breach her assumed duty" to protect Zwerner, despite multiple reports that a firearm was on school property and likely in possession of a violent individual."

Zwerner also alleges that school officials knew the boy "had a history of random violence" at school and home, including that he "strangled and choked" his kindergarten teacher and "chased students around the playground with a belt in an effort to whip them with it."

The boy was transferred out of the school and placed in a different school in the district, but was allowed to return the following year, according to the complaint.

Following the shooting, the boy's family said he had disability and had received the "treatment he needed" under a court-ordered temporary detention at a medical facility.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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