‘I don’t care if I go to jail’: Newly released video shows 6-year-old defiant after Virginia school shooting

A 6-year-old boy who shot his Virginia elementary school teacher in 2023 was seen cursing at police officers in a newly released body camera video.

“Where is the weapon?” one officer asks.

“It’s over there,” the child says, cursing at the officer.

“If you want a piece of me, come it all, b—-,” the child says.

The video shows the moments after the first-grader shot Abigail Zwerner at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News on Jan. 6, 2023. The bullet tore through her hand before striking her in the chest, where it remains.

At a civil trial against the school’s former assistant principal, a doctor testified that removing the bullet would be far more dangerous than leaving it in place.

Zwerner testified at the trial that she thought she was dying after she was shot.

“I thought I was on my way to heaven or in heaven,” she said. “But then it all got black.”

Zwerner, who no longer teaches, was awarded $10 million in damages, plus interest, last year after a jury found that former assistant principal, Ebony Parker, ignored warnings that the child had a gun in his backpack. The jury said that the shooting could have been avoided and that Parker’s gross negligence led to the incident.

Abby Zwerner looks back while waiting for court to begin. — Former Richneck Elementary School teacher Abby Zwerner waits for court to begin in Newport News, Va., in 2025.Stephen M. Katz / The Virginian-Pilot via Getty

In the video, the child also appears to curse at a different teacher, who is restraining him as police begin processing the scene.

“My mom had that,” the child says, in reference to the gun. “I stole that from my mom.”

At another point, the child screams at the officers.

“Both of y’all want a f—ing piece of me, b—-,” he says.

The teacher holding him says the child still has gun residue on his hands.

The video was initially sealed during Parker’s criminal trial, where she was charged with eight counts of child neglect. A judge dismissed the case in May, ruling that Parker had not committed a crime under state law.

The judge decided to release the video but ordered the child’s face be blurred.

“I don’t care if you call backup,” the child tells police. “I don’t care if I go to jail.”

The child’s mother, Deja Taylor, was arrested after the shooting on a state charge of felony child neglect and a federal weapons charge. In 2023 she was sentenced to two years in prison on the child neglect and 21 months on the federal charge.

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