Bodycam footage shows a 6-year-old on a reading specialist’s lap after he shot his teacher. Then he told police, ‘I stole that from my mom’

Police bodycam video released this week shows a six-year-old on a reading specialist’s lap inside Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, in the minutes after he shot his first-grade teacher. The boy, identified only as J.T., had already fired his mother’s 9mm handgun on January 6, 2023, striking Abigail Zwerner in the left hand and the upper left chest. The Virginian-Pilot obtained the recording, which had not been published in the three years since the shooting.

According to The Daily Mail, Officer Brian Torrez’s camera catches the child as Amy Kovac, the class reading specialist, holds him in place and officers gather around them. Zwerner and the rest of the class had already left the room. Kovac found the boy alone, with the gun on the floor beside him, the outlet reported, and stayed with him until police arrived.

When an officer asked the boy his name, he answered, “If you want a piece of me, come get it!” He then pointed at the firearm and told police, “I stole that from my mom.”

The boy was also seen cursing at officers

The same stretch of video has the boy cursing at the officers while Kovac keeps him on her lap. He said, “I don’t care if I go to jail, b—-,” and added, “I don’t care if you call back up, I don’t care if I go to jail, b—-.” Kovac replied, “We know you know that language, and you know that’s not appropriate. Mrs Kovac is not happy with that.” Search warrants reviewed by CBS say he also told officers he “shot that b—– dead” as they restrained him.

Zwerner’s injuries included broken bones and a punctured lung. She got the other students to the school office, then collapsed. Her lawsuit says she spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, went through multiple surgeries, and has lived with ongoing emotional trauma since. She has said she still does not have full use of her left hand, and that a bullet remains in her chest.

She sued assistant principal Ebony Parker for $40 million, arguing that Parker did not act on warnings from her and other staff about the student’s violent behavior. In November, a court ordered Parker to pay Zwerner $10 million in a gross negligence case. Separate criminal charges against Parker were dismissed in May of this year after she pleaded not guilty.

Those charges accused Parker of failing to protect Zwerner or the students after repeated warnings about the six-year-old’s aggression. Judge Rebecca Robinson ruled that Parker had not broken the law. The shooting adds to a broader pattern of classroom incidents involving very young students, such as an Indianapolis teacher who filmed and encouraged a classroom fight involving a 7-year-old.

“If [Parker’s actions] are meant to amount to a crime, the legislature will need to codify it,” the judge said. “Therefore, I do grant the defense motion to strike in full on all counts, all eight counts of felony child abuse and endangerment.” Parker cried in court and left without speaking to reporters.

Zwerner’s aunt, Karen Piere, sent the family’s statement to the media. “We are happy that this tragic event is behind Abby,” it said. “As devastating as this shooting was, may it bring change to the education system in our country so that violent children are not placed in a general education classroom, and I hope that administrators are held accountable if this were to happen again for violent behavior.”

On the stand, Zwerner said she told Parker that morning that the boy was in a “violent mood.” She said Kovac had already raised the possibility that the child had a firearm and had gone to Parker with that report.

At recess, Zwerner testified, the boy kept an oversized jacket on and his hands in his pockets the entire time. She said he locked eyes with a school security officer, then rose and walked toward her without looking away. “I witnessed the student was staring her down, very focused on her, and he slowly got up from his seat and ever so slowly approached, still not breaking eye contact at the security officer and that stuck out to me as well,” she said.

Once they were back in the classroom, she testified, he came at her with the gun already raised. “I saw the student looking at me. I looked over. A gun was pointed right at me. He was holding a gun, the student. It was pointed right at me. And then I was shot,” she said. Police said she was at a reading table at the front of the class when the shot was fired. It was his first day back after a suspension for slamming her phone.

The civil filing says she also told Parker the boy had threatened to beat up a kindergartener and had stared down a security officer in the lunchroom, and that Parker neither answered nor looked up.

When staff said the child may have moved the gun from his backpack into a pocket, Parker said his “pockets were too small to hold a handgun and did nothing,” the lawsuit states. A guidance counselor asked to search the boy. Parker refused and said his mother would be there soon to pick him up, according to the filing.

His mother, Deja Taylor, pleaded guilty to felony child neglect. In 2023, a Newport News Circuit judge gave her two years to serve, more than the six months prosecutors had sought in a deal that dropped a misdemeanor reckless-storage charge.

The full sentence was five years, with three suspended. She had already pleaded guilty to using marijuana while owning a gun and, in November 2023, received 21 months in federal prison on felony gun charges.

Authorities said she falsely denied drug use on the federal form she filled out when she bought the handgun her son later carried into school. He now lives with his great-grandfather and goes to another school in the area. No criminal case was ever filed against him.