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Two teachers say Virginia school ignored warnings before 6-year-old shot educator
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Attorneys for a Virginia teacher shot by her 6-year-old student told jurors that the school’s former assistant principal ignored repeated warnings the boy had a gun, as a $40 million civil trial opened in Newport News.
The $40 million civil trial filed by first-grade teacher Abigail Zwerner, who was shot by a 6-year-old student in 2023 with a 9 mm handgun, entered its opening phase Tuesday as attorneys delivered their opening remarks and the first witnesses took the stand.
The lawsuit accuses former school administrator Ebony Parker of failing to act after the first-grade teacher, the guidance counselor, the music teacher and the reading specialist informed her that the boy might have a gun. Zwerner is suing Parker, who resigned after the shooting.
“No one could have imagined that a 6-year-old first-grade student would bring a firearm into a school,” Parker’s attorney, Daniel Hogan, told jurors. “You will be able to judge for yourself whether or not this was foreseeable. That’s the heart of this case.”
In this undated photo provided by her family and lawyers, Abigail Zwerner, a first-grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Va., is shown inside her classroom. Police have said a boy brought a 9mm handgun to school and intentionally shot Zwerner as she was teaching her first-grade class. (Family of Abigail Zwerner via AP, File)
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On Jan. 6, 2023, the boy pulled the gun from his hoodie and shot the 25-year-old teacher, with the bullet tearing through her left hand and lodging in her chest.
“1:58 p.m., BANG!” Zwerner’s attorney, Diane Toscano, said in opening statements. “A bullet went through Abby’s hand, then through her chest.” The bullet is still in Zwerner’s body because it’s too dangerous to remove, she added.
Zwerner’s lawyer accused Parker of being grossly negligent because she had several opportunities to confiscate the gun based on the information provided by others.
“She made bad decisions that day,” Toscano said.
Hogan said that decision-making in a public school setting is “cooperative” and “collaborative.” He also warned of hindsight bias and “Monday morning quarterbacking.”
“The law knows that it is fundamentally unfair to judge another person’s decisions based on stuff that came up after the fact,” Hogan said. “The law requires you to examine people’s decisions at the time they make them.”
Ebony Parker was released on bond in Newport News, Va., on April 10, 2024. (Newport News Police Department)
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Dr. Nina Farrish, the director of human resources for Newport News Public Schools, testified that Parker admitted to her two or three days after the shooting that it was reported around 12:20 p.m. the student had a gun in his backpack. That was more than 90 minutes before the shooting.
Amy Kovac, the reading specialist, was in Parker’s office when Zwerner told Parker the boy had threatened a kindergartner and had been aggressive with a security officer during lunch. Parker never looked up at Zwerner, who had to leave to return to class, Kovac testified.
“She told me I could tell [Zwerner] that she could call his mom at any time to come pick him up,” Kovac testified Tuesday.
When she confronted the 6-year-old, she recalled telling him, “Can I have the bag?” and the boy replied, “No, no one is getting that bag.”
Kovac said she immediately warned Parker, only to be brushed off: “She did say, well, he has little pockets.”
Kovac testified that she pressed Parker again, saying the child might have slipped the weapon into his jacket pocket. Minutes later, after hearing the gunshot, Kovac ran to Zwerner’s classroom.
“I felt like I had a bubble of God around me, and I walked straight to him,” she told jurors.
The boy, she said, stood “with his legs kind of spread open, arms crossed and cocked.”
Kovac testified she grabbed his wrist and restrained him, using Zwerner’s phone to call for help.
“I said, this is Richneck. A teacher’s been shot. I have the shooter. Send help.”
A Newport News police officer directs traffic at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Va., on Monday, Jan. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)
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Another first-grade teacher at the school, Jennifer West, testified Tuesday that a “visibly nervous” student told her after recess that the 6-year-old had a gun on him, and he saw the firearm and bullet.
She said she called the front office to report this to an administrator, per protocol, and also spoke to a school counselor about it.
The counselor, Rolonzo Rawles, testified Tuesday that he asked Parker if he could search the child’s person for a gun and that she responded that the student’s mother would be arriving to get him soon and to wait to check him then.
“I didn’t want to step over any boundaries, so I wasn’t going to check him without permission,” Rawles said.
Newport News, Virginia, schoolteacher Abby Zwerner appears in a Newport News, Virginia, courtroom, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. (Billy Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, File)
Toscano argued that Parker had the authority as the assistant principal to act.
“Who would think a 6-year-old is going to bring a gun to school and shoot their teacher?” she said. “Dr. Parker’s job is to believe that is possible.”
Parker faces a separate criminal trial next month on eight counts of felony child neglect, one for “each of the eight bullets that endangered all the students” in Zwerner’s classroom, prosecutors said.
Deja Taylor turned herself in, according to the Newport News Police Department. She was sentenced to two years in prison for felony neglect and federal weapons charges. (Newport News Police Department)
The mother of the boy who shot Zwerner, Deja Taylor, was sentenced to two years in prison for felony neglect and federal weapons charges.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Southeast
Dem governor under fire after illegal alien allegedly stabs woman to death at bus stop: ‘Heinous’
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EXCLUSIVE: The Department of Homeland Security is calling on Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger to ensure local law enforcement cooperates with federal immigration officials by handing over an illegal immigrant with a lengthy criminal record who allegedly killed a woman earlier this week at a Virginia bus stop.
Police in Fairfax County, Virginia, arrested an illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone earlier this week on charges of second-degree murder after he allegedly fatally stabbed a woman, Stephanie Minter, 41, who was found dead at a local bus stop with several wounds to the upper body.
The alleged suspect, Abdul Jalloh, 32, also has a criminal history of more than 30 arrests, according to DHS, including for rape, malicious wounding, assault, identity theft, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, assault and pick-pocketing.
The request from the Trump administration comes after the newly elected Democratic governor of Virginia signed an executive order to end cooperation between federal immigration officials and state and local law enforcement, a move several Democratic Party governors have taken recently amid President Donald Trump’s move to increase deportation operations around the country.
The DHS request asking Virginia officials to cooperate with ICE also comes after an illegal immigrant allegedly murdered someone just days after being released from jail for a separate crime in December.
Abdul Jalloh, 32, and Gov. Abigail Spanberger (Department of Homeland Security/Getty Images)
“We are calling on Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Virginia’s sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this murderer and violent career criminal from their jail without notifying ICE,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis.
“This illegal alien’s murder of an innocent, beautiful American woman came less than 24 hours before Governor Spanberger’s demonization of ICE law enforcement. This heinous criminal is a perfect example of why we need cooperation from sanctuary jurisdictions and the importance of third country removals for the safety of the American people.”
Spanberger’s representatives did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Jalloh entered the United States illegally in 2012, according to DHS, and immigration officials lodged an immigration detainer against him in 2020, whereupon he was granted a final order of removal by a judge who said he could be removed to any country other than Sierra Leone.
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Protesters, using whistles to alert neighborhoods to ICE activity, face off with Minneapolis police officers in Minneapolis Jan. 24, 2026. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)
DHS indicated that ICE cooperation to ensure Jalloh’s deportation is evident after a case Fox News covered in December when a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador, Marvin Morales-Ortez, 23, allegedly killed a man just a day after Fairfax County jail officials let him go.
The immigrant from El Salvador had been in custody on charges of malicious wounding and brandishing a gun, but police released him after the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, led by George Soros-backed prosecutor Steve Descano, dropped the charges.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Fairfax County Sheriff’s office to inquire about why the man had not been handed over to ICE.
The sheriff’s office said, “ICE was aware of Morales-Ortez’s incarceration and elected not to seek a judicial warrant to ensure he remained in custody.
Marvin Morales-Ortez, who is living in the country illegally, was released from Fairfax County custody and then allegedly committed a murder the next day. (Fairfax County Police Department/Getty Images)
“The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office follows all local, state and federal laws when determining whether a person is subject to release from the ADC,” the sheriff’s office told Fox News Digital at the time. “Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is automatically notified any time a person is booked into the ADC.”
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The same sheriff’s office did not get back to Fox News Digital’s media inquiry for this story on DHS urging officials to cooperate with federal officials.
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Southeast
Illegal immigrant arrested after showing up to Florida Border Patrol office for contract IT work
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FIRST ON FOX: An illegal immigrant who reported to a U.S. Border Patrol site in Florida to perform some Information technology contractual work was arrested when authorities were made aware of his citizenship status, officials said.
Angel Camacho, a Venezuelan citizen, reported to a USBP center in Dania Beach, Florida, Jan. 6 to do some IT work when U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials began vetting him, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Fox News Digital.
During its investigation, it was revealed Camacho was in violation of U.S. immigration laws, authorities said.
Angel Camacho reported to a Florida U.S. Border Patrol center to perform contractual work when he was arrested, a Department of Homeland Security official said. (Getty Images )
“CBP vets all external visitors before allowing them to enter secure facilities to ensure safety and operational integrity,” DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement.
“During the vetting process, CBP uncovered this individual was a tourist visa overstay in the country for over five years.”
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This photo shows a U.S. Border Patrol patch on a border agent’s uniform in McAllen, Texas, Jan. 15, 2019. (Suzanne CordeiroAFP via Getty Images)
Camacho was arrested and transferred to ICE custody, Bis said.
His criminal history includes theft and resisting a Florida Highway Patrol officer, officials said. Federal authorities have nabbed several illegal immigrants in the process of trying to obtain employment in law enforcement and education.
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One Sierra Leone citizen was recently arrested as he was training to become a Pennsylvania corrections officer.
Another illegal immigrant, Ian Roberts, served as the former superintendent of Iowa’s largest district, Des Moines Public Schools, before he was arrested by ICE.
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A Georgia high school teacher was arrested Wednesday after allegations of inappropriate contact between a teacher and a minor student surfaced at Lee County High School.
Danielle Weaver, 29, of Leesburg, is charged with child molestation and improper sexual contact by an employee, agent or foster parent, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI).
Lee County High School requested the Leesburg Police Department investigate the allegations on Feb. 3, and the GBI was called to assist the following day.
Danielle Weaver, 29, of Leesburg, Ga., is charged with child molestation and improper sexual contact by an employee. (Lee County Sheriff’s Office)
Investigators identified Weaver as the “subject,” and identified the victim as a student under 18 years old at Lee County High School, according to officials.
GBI agents continued the investigation along with the Leesburg Police Department, and arrest warrants were obtained for Weaver on Tuesday.
A Google Maps street view photo of Lee County High School in Leesburg, Ga. (Google Maps)
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Weaver turned herself in to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday, and was later released on bond, according to a report from WALB News.
This investigation is active and ongoing, according to the GBI.
The incident allegedly happened at a high school in Georgia. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
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Once complete, the case file will be given to the Southwestern Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for prosecution.
Leesburg is located in South Georgia, and is about an hour and a half north of Tallahassee, Florida.
Lee County High School’s communications team did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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