NEWPORT NEWS, Virginia. —
Police body camera video released this week shows the moments after a 6-year-old shot his teacher at a Virginia elementary school in January 2023.
Warning. The video above may contain images that may be disturbing to some viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.
The first grader shot her teacher, Abby Zwerner, in a classroom on Jan. 6, 2023, according to police.
Body camera footage shows officers interacting with the child at Richneck Elementary School after the shooting. Reading specialist Amy Kovac can be seen holding the child in her arms as he shouted profanities at the officers.
“You both want a (expletive) piece of (expletive) me,” the boy said.
The boy said, “I don’t care if you call for backup. I don’t care if I go to jail, (expletive).”
Zwerner was shot in the hand and chest while sitting at a reading table in her classroom. “I thought I was dying. I thought I was dead,” Zwerner testified in a civil case against former assistant principal Ebony Parker.
The lawsuit claimed Parker ignored repeated warnings that the child had a gun. In November 2025, a Virginia jury awarded Zwerner $10 million. A criminal case against Parker was dismissed earlier this year.
The student’s mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison on child neglect and federal weapons charges. Her son told authorities he obtained his mother’s handgun by climbing over a drawer to reach the top of a dresser, where the firearm was in his mother’s purse.
The 6-year-old boy was not criminally charged because of his age. His identity has not been revealed.
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