By the time the bullet went through Abby Zwerner's left hand and into her chest, three different teachers at Richneck Elementary School had already told administrators that a six-year-old boy in her first-grade classroom had a gun in his backpack. Zwerner had reported it at 11:15 that morning. A second teacher reported it at 12:30 after searching the boy's bag. A third reported it just before 1:00 p.m., warning that the boy had shown another child the gun at recess and threatened to shoot anyone who told. One teacher was told to wait it out because the school day was almost over. Another was denied permission to search the student. About an hour before she was shot, Zwerner texted a loved one that the boy had a gun and that the administration was not helping. At 2:00 p.m. on January 6, 2023, the boy raised the 9mm Taurus pistol he had carried in his backpack from home.
Richneck Elementary School in Newport News serves about 550 students. The school had metal detectors at the time of the shooting; they were used randomly. The boy who shot Abby Zwerner was six years old. The gun was a 9mm Taurus semi-automatic pistol legally purchased and owned by his mother, Deja Taylor. He had brought it from home in his backpack. The reports from teachers to administrators on the morning of January 6, 2023, are documented in the lawsuit and in subsequent reporting: Zwerner at 11:15 to 11:30 a.m., another teacher at 12:30 p.m. after searching the boy's bag herself, a third teacher just before 1:00 p.m. after the boy had shown the weapon to another child at recess. The response, according to staff testimony, was that the day was almost over. The boy had been suspended for one day earlier in the school year after breaking Zwerner's phone.
Around 2:00 p.m., during a routine lesson, the boy pointed the gun at Zwerner. She reached for it. He fired. The bullet passed through her left hand, ruptured multiple bones, and lodged in her chest. What Zwerner did next is what makes her story matter beyond the headlines: she got her students out. Bleeding, she walked the first-graders out of the classroom away from the shooter. Amy Kovac, a reading specialist, restrained the child and called 911, holding him until police arrived. Zwerner made it to the school office and lost consciousness struggling to breathe. Her injuries were initially described as life-threatening. By January 8 she was listed as stable; she was released from the hospital in mid-January. In a March 2023 interview she described remembering the boy's face, the gun going off, the realization that the room was no longer safe for her students. She resigned from Newport News Public Schools on June 13, 2023. As of January 2025 she was still living with PTSD, anxiety, and depression.
Because of his age - six years old - the child shooter's identity has not been publicly revealed. He was arrested and remained in a healthcare facility. The shooting prompted a difficult set of conversations about legal culpability when the perpetrator is too young to fully understand criminal responsibility. The closest comparison is the February 29, 2000 killing of Kayla Rolland, a six-year-old fatally shot by another six-year-old at Buell Elementary School in Mount Morris Township, Michigan; that boy was not charged with murder, though his uncle, who left the gun accessible, was convicted of manslaughter. The Newport News child's parents said through their attorney that he had an acute disability and was later identified by his family as having been diagnosed with ADHD. He had been suspended once that year - for breaking Zwerner's phone, which his mother later said was accidental rather than intentional. None of this changes the fact that a six-year-old should not have been able to bring a loaded handgun to school.
Deja Taylor - the boy's mother and the gun's legal owner - was charged in federal court in June 2023 with making a false statement while buying a firearm and unlawful use of a controlled substance (marijuana) while in possession of a handgun. The maximum penalty was 25 years. As part of a plea agreement, federal prosecutors asked for 18 to 24 months. On November 15, 2023, Taylor was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for the gun charges. On December 15, 2023, she was sentenced to 2 years in state prison for felony child neglect. She has publicly stated that she takes responsibility for what happened. Her current scheduled release date is May 13, 2026.
Zwerner filed a $40 million civil lawsuit against the Newport News school district and former assistant principal Ebony Parker in April 2023. The district moved to dismiss, arguing that her injuries fell under the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act. The case proceeded. The trial began October 28, 2025. School staff testified, on the record, that they had warned administration the six-year-old was a threat and that those warnings had been brushed aside. On November 6, 2025, a Virginia jury awarded Zwerner $10 million in her civil lawsuit against Ebony Parker, finding that Parker had ignored repeated warnings from school staff that the boy had a gun in his backpack. A separate criminal trial of Parker proceeded in May 2026; a circuit court judge dismissed all eight counts of felony child abuse on the fourth day of trial, ruling that the conduct — however negligent — did not constitute a crime under existing Virginia law. The case was dismissed with prejudice. Newport News mayor Phillip Jones called the shooting 'a red flag for our country.' Zwerner has said publicly that she is not going to stop fighting. The Newport News school district has had three school-related shootings in the 17 months prior to January 2023. Two years on, she said, the work of putting herself back together was still daily and incomplete.
Richneck Elementary School sits at approximately 37.1564 N, 76.5236 W in the northern part of Newport News, near the boundary with Hampton. This is a residential and school location, not a flight destination - the geographic context is the dense suburban grid of north Newport News. Newport News/Williamsburg International (KPHF) is 3 nm northwest. Felker Army Airfield (KFAF) at Fort Eustis is 6 nm west-northwest. Langley AFB (KLFI) is 5 nm east. Norfolk International (KORF) Class C airspace begins 10 nm south. Stay clear of KLFI surface area without coordination.