NEWPORT NEWS, Va. —
Police body camera video released this week shows the moments after a 6-year-old shot his teacher inside a Virginia elementary school in January 2023.
Warning. The video above may contain imagery that could be disturbing to some viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.
The first-grade student shot his teacher, Abby Zwerner, inside a classroom on Jan. 6, 2023, according to police.
The body camera footage shows officers interacting with the child at Richneck Elementary School after the shooting. Reading specialist Amy Kovac can be seen holding the child as he shouted profanities at officers.
“Both of y’all want a [expletive] piece of me [expletive],” the boy said.
The boy said, “I don’t care if you call backup. I don’t care if I go to jail, [expletive].”
Zwerner was shot in the hand and chest while sitting at a reading table in her classroom. “I thought I was dying. I thought I had died,” Zwerner testified in a civil case against ex-assistant principal Ebony Parker.
The lawsuit claimed Parker ignored repeated warnings that the child had a gun. In November 2025, a Virginia jury awarded Zwerner $10 million. A criminal case against Parker was dismissed earlier this year.
The student’s mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for felony child neglect and federal weapons charges. Her son told authorities he got his mother’s handgun by climbing onto a drawer to reach the top of a dresser, where the firearm was in his mom’s purse.
The 6-year-old boy was not criminally charged because of his age. His identity was not released.