'I thought I had died,' teacher shot by 6-year-old testifies
Zwerner testified she first heard about the gun prior to class recess from a reading specialist. The shooting happened a few hours later
A former Virginia teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student in her classroom last year testified yesterday (30 October) that she believed she had died in the moment of the attack.
Abby Zwerner, who taught at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, was wounded in the hand and chest in January 2023 as she sat at a reading table with students.
"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 got black. And so, I thought I wasn't going there. My next memory is seeing two co-workers putting pressure on my wounds."
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Zwerner has filed a $40 million lawsuit against a former assistant principal, alleging school officials ignored multiple warnings that the first-grader had brought a gun to class.
She spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, underwent six surgeries, and still does not have full use of her left hand. A bullet remains lodged in her chest after narrowly missing her heart.
The shooting shocked the Newport News community and raised national questions about how a child so young could obtain and fire a gun.
Zwerner has since left teaching and revealed during testimony that she is now a licensed cosmetologist.
Zwerner answered questions on the stand for more than an hour.
A physician testified on 29 October that Zwerner can't make a tight fist with her left hand, which has less than half its normal grip strength.
Former assistant principal Ebony Parker is accused of failing to act after several people voiced concerns to her in the hours before the shooting that the student had a gun in his backpack.
Zwerner testified she first heard about the gun prior to class recess from a reading specialist. The shooting happened a few hours later.
Despite her injuries, Zwerner was able to hustle her students out of the classroom. She eventually passed out in the school office.
"The moment went by very fast," she said.
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 a conviction.
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.
