A six-year-old bragged, “I shot that bastard” after shooting his first grader at a Virginia elementary school in January, recently unsealed, redacted search warrants revealed.
Documents obtained by WTKR show that the unnamed boy told a school official how on Jan. 6 he brought his mother’s gun to Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, and shot his teacher, Abigail Zwerner, 25. She survived the shooting, which made national headlines.
The documents also show that a year earlier, the same boy nearly choked his kindergarten teacher “until she couldn’t breathe” and had to be removed from the classroom.
The child’s mother, Deja Taylor, pleaded guilty to gun possession charges and will now also plead guilty to child neglect charges.
Meanwhile, school officials continue to face Zwerner’s $40 million civil lawsuit.
Abigail Zwerner was shot dead by a six-year-old schoolgirl in January. Freshly unsealed documents show the student subsequently bragged about the incident
Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, where the shooting took place
According to the search warrant, Amy Kovac, a literacy specialist at the school, held the six-year-old until police arrived at the scene after the shooting.
During that time, the warrant states, the boy told her, “I did it.” I got my mother’s gun last night. I shot that bastard.’
The unsealed recordings also detail what Zwerner told police at the hospital after the shooting.
She described how, after the class returned from recess, the boy pulled his gun out of his pocket, pointed it directly at her, and asked her, “What are you doing with it?”
The boy paused for a moment and “then fired a shot that hit Zwerner in her left hand and upper body,” court documents said. She fled the classroom to the school office, where first responders found her wound bleeding from the wound.
Zwerner is also said to have told police about other incidents in which the student threatened violence and physically assaulted others – all of which she said were reported to the school’s administration.
In one of these incidents, the child is said to have choked his kindergarten teacher.
Authorities noted in their affidavit that they spoke to the teacher, who described how the child “walked after her while she was sitting in her chair and put both arms around her neck, pulling her down and choking her.” ‘ that she couldn’t breathe anymore.’
An assistant teacher then forcibly removed the student from the classroom, according to the court documents.
Zwerner reportedly told police about other incidents in which the student had threatened violence and physically assaulted others
She sustained a gunshot wound to her left hand and torso after the child drew the gun and pointed it at her on January 6
Police said they are trying to get more information about the student from Child Protective Services, as well as more documentation about the choking incident, and are waiting for that documentation from school officials.
In a statement to CNN, Newport News Public Schools officials said, “Since the January tragedy at Richneck Elementary School, Newport News Public Schools have worked cooperatively with the Newport News Police Department and other agencies to assist in the investigation.”
“While the school department cannot comment on legal action, NNPS remains committed to ensuring the well-being and care of all students and staff.”
In a separate statement to WTKR, school officials said, “Unfortunately, FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, prevents schools from releasing information from a student’s educational records.”
“The U.S. Department of Education guidance states, “Schools must have written authorization from the parent or eligible student to release information from a student’s educational record.”
“Newport News Public Schools is not in a position to comment on this matter pursuant to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.”
The child had brought the gun, which belonged to his mother Deja Taylor (pictured), from home to school and allegedly threatened to use it throughout the day
Taylor (center) says her child always “really liked” Zwerner but talked a lot in the week before the incident and said she “didn’t listen” to him
Describing her son as a “great” and “energetic kid,” Taylor claimed he doesn’t talk about the incident but does talk about the “day or two before.”
The little boy is now in the care of his great-grandfather, Calvin Taylor, and continues to receive therapy as he attends a different school.
“The child was in extreme emotional distress and we are all working to make him better every day,” family attorney James Ellenson said.
He was released from the King’s Daughters Children’s Hospital in April.
His great-grandfather Calvin also told the Virginia pilot in June: “He reads, writes, counts, does everything a child his age should do.”
“He’s making progress.” “He’s made more progress since he’s been at this school than he’s made in all those crazy years he’s been in a Newport News public school system,” he added. “And I think basically he needed a stable environment. And he just needed a loving environment.
“And he gets that from me,” Calvin said. ‘We’re having a good time. We play games.’
These comments represent a marked improvement over the problems his mother and school officials said the boy had faced in the past.
In an interview with Good Morning America in May, his mother blamed ADHD for his actions.
“Some people have it easy,” she said of her son. “He’s out of control. Never sit still. He had started on medication and achieved his academic goals.”
She added that the boy “actually liked Zwerner,” but that week he “actually came home and talked a lot about how he felt ignored.”
“He came home and said, ‘Mom, I don’t think she was listening to me. I didn’t like that.”
“He was suspended the next day because he was in class and wanted to say something to her and she asked him to sit back down.”
“He threw up his arms and said, ‘Fine.’ As he raised his arms, he accidentally knocked the phone out of her hand. For that he was suspended.’
The shooting then happened when he was returning to school.
Ellenson, the family’s attorney, also previously told WTKR that the boy began acting out after Taylor had an ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage “which led to postpartum depression,” saying, “That was a big factor in a number of the Events leading up to ‘the unfortunate event on January 6th.’
But Zwerner alleges in her lawsuit that the child had a history of violence and that he “thrown the cellphone on the ground so hard it shattered and shattered.”
Teacher Abigail Zwerner is now suing the school district for $40 million
Zwerner’s lawsuit alleges that Newport News School District and Richneck Elementary officials ignored several warnings about the student’s behavior and concerns that he might have a gun.
The boy “was subject to a care plan at school in which his mother or father would take him to school and accompany him to class every day,” the family previously said.
However, the school reportedly told the family that she no longer needed to be present in the classroom, a request she made in the fall due to the boy’s behavioral issues.
Court documents now show that Kovac had previously heard from two students that the six-year-old had a gun in his pocket.
In April, the teacher filed a major lawsuit against the Newport News School Board, former Richneck Principal Briana Foster-Newton and former Deputy Principal Dr. Ebony Parker a
dr George Parker III – the school’s former superintendent – was also named in the lawsuit
She then searched the bag as the class went to recess but did not find the gun.
The boy’s mother, Deja Taylor, has since pleaded guilty to the state gun charges and will be sentenced Oct. 18.
Ellenson told CNN that she is also expected to plead guilty to a state charge of child neglect on Aug. 15.
Taylor faces up to six months in prison for child neglect. She will be sentenced on October 27.