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Graphic Content Warning: This article includes police body-camera footage from the aftermath of a school shooting.
A Virginia elementary school teacher who was shot by her 6-year-old student recounted to jurors that she “thought she was dead,” as newly released police body-camera footage captured the chaos that followed the 2023 classroom shooting.
On the witness stand Thursday, Abby Zwerner, then 25, described how an ordinary school day became a life-or-death struggle when her first-grade student opened fire with a 9-millimeter handgun. The bullet passed through her left hand and remains in her chest, where it narrowly missed her heart.
“The last thing I remember at the school, I thought I was dying. I thought I had died. I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in heaven,” Zwerner told the court. “Then it all went black. So, then I thought I wasn’t going there.”
Zwerner has filed a $40 million lawsuit against former school administrator Ebony Parker, alleging gross negligence for failing to act on multiple warnings that the child may have brought a gun to school. According to the complaint, several colleagues — including the guidance counselor, music teacher, and reading specialist — had all raised alarms about the boy before the shooting occurred.
TWO TEACHERS SAY VIRGINIA SCHOOL IGNORED WARNINGS BEFORE 6-YEAR-OLD SHOT EDUCATOR
Zwerner also recalled the chilling moment she locked eyes with the boy just before the gun went off.
“It was a blank look,” she said. “But it wasn’t a blank look at all.”
Now, nearly two years later, Zwerner said she still struggles with simple physical tasks. Over lunch with her attorney, she remembered trying to open a small bag of potato chips, tugging at it from several angles before giving up.
“I eventually asked you to open it,” she told her lawyer on the stand. “It’s the same thing with water bottles.”
The psychological wounds, she added, have proved just as lasting. Zwerner described breaking down one morning when she realized her plan to see Hamilton, only to remember that the Broadway musical features scenes of dueling.
Since the shooting, Zwerner has stepped away from teaching and has graduated from cosmetology school. She hopes to pursue a career in beauty.
WATCH THE BODYCAM:
This week, jurors reviewed police body-camera footage showing the first officers arriving at the elementary school moments after the shooting. The video captures paramedics working to save Zwerner’s life on the scene.
In the recording, an officer can be heard calling for medics as Zwerner struggles to breathe.
“You’re going to be okay,” a paramedic is heard telling Zwerner.
The educator, who appeared pale in the body-camera footage with a pained expression on her face, is seen carried out on a stretcher.
LAWYERS FOR VIRGINIA TEACHER SHOT BY 6-YEAR-OLD FILE $40M SUIT DETAILING HOW SCHOOL ALLEGEDLY IGNORED WARNINGS
Attorneys for the Newport News school district have argued that the shooting was an unforeseeable act by a child too young to be fully understood or anticipated. They’ve also contended that Parker and other staff followed reasonable procedures that day.
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Parker faces a separate criminal trial next month on eight counts of felony child neglect, one for “each of the eight bullets that endangered all the students” in Zwerner’s classroom, prosecutors said.
The mother of the boy who shot Zwerner, Deja Taylor, was sentenced to two years in prison for felony neglect and federal weapons charges.
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