Virginia teacher shot by 6-year-old testifies she ‘thought she was dead’

Graphic content material warning: This text incorporates police physique digicam footage of the aftermath of a college capturing.

A Virginia elementary college instructor shot by her 6-year-old scholar informed jurors she “thought she was lifeless,” as newly launched police physique digicam footage captured the chaos that adopted the 2023 classroom capturing.

On the witness stand Thursday, Abby Zwerner, then 25, described how an bizarre college day turned a life-and-death battle when her first-grader opened fireplace with a 9-millimeter handgun. The bullet handed by her left hand and lodged in her chest, narrowly lacking her coronary heart.

“The very last thing I bear in mind at college was considering I used to be dying. I believed I used to be lifeless. I believed I used to be on my approach to heaven or in heaven,” Zwerner informed the court docket. “Then all of it went black. So then I believed I wasn’t going there.”

Zwerner has filed a $40 million lawsuit in opposition to former college administrator Ebony Parker, alleging gross negligence for failing to heed a number of warnings that the kid could have introduced a gun to highschool. In keeping with the grievance, a number of colleagues — together with the steerage counselor, music instructor and studying specialist — had all raised the alarm in regards to the boy earlier than the capturing occurred.

Former Richneck Elementary College instructor Abby Zwerner seems again into the courtroom throughout her civil trial, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Newport Information, Va. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot by way of AP, Pool)

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Zwerner additionally recalled the chilling second she regarded on the boy simply earlier than the gun went off.

“It was a clean stare,” she mentioned. “However it wasn’t a clean stare in any respect.”

Now, nearly two years later, Zwerner says she nonetheless struggles with easy bodily duties. Throughout lunch together with her lawyer, she recalled making an attempt to open a bag of chips, pulling at it from completely different angles earlier than giving up.

“I lastly requested you to open it,” she informed her lawyer on the witness stand. “It is the identical with water bottles.”

Abby Zwerner’s legal professional Diane Toscano confers together with her colleague Jeffrey Breit throughout Zwerner’s trial on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Newport Information, Va. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot by way of AP, Pool)

The psychological wounds, she added, have confirmed simply as lasting. Zwerner described having a breakdown one morning when she realized her plan to see Hamilton, however remembered that the Broadway musical incorporates scenes of dueling.

For the reason that capturing, Zwerner has stepped away from educating and graduated from cosmetology college. She hopes to pursue a profession in magnificence.

VIEW THE BODYCAM:

This week, jurors reviewed police digicam footage that confirmed the primary officers arriving on the elementary college shortly after the capturing. The video exhibits paramedics working on the scene to avoid wasting Zwerner’s life.

On the recording, an officer may be heard calling for medics as Zwerner struggles to breathe.

“You are going to be OK,” a paramedic may be heard telling Zwerner.

The instructor, who appeared pale in physique digicam footage with a pained expression on her face, is being carried on a stretcher.

Newport Information Circuit Court docket Decide Matthew Hoffman sidebar with attorneys throughout former Richneck Elementary College instructor Abby Zwerner’s civil lawsuit in opposition to the previous assistant principal of the varsity the place Zwerner was shot, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Newport Information, Va. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot by way of AP, Pool)

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Attorneys for the Newport Information College District have argued that the capturing was an unpredictable act by a baby too younger to completely perceive or foresee. They’ve additionally alleged that Parker and different employees adopted affordable procedures that day.

Former Richneck Elementary College assistant principal Ebony Parker seems again into the courtroom throughout Abby Zwerner’s trial in opposition to her Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Newport Information, Va. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot by way of AP, Pool)

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Parker faces a separate prison trial subsequent month on eight counts of kid neglect, one for “every of the eight bullets that endangered all college students” in Zwerner’s classroom, prosecutors mentioned.

The mom of the boy who shot Zwerner, Deja Taylor, was sentenced to 2 years in jail on felony neglect and federal weapons expenses.