Bodycam footage shows the harrowing moments after a 6-year-old shot their teacher in a classroom.
A first-grade teacher is suing a school administrator after being shot by one of her young students.
Abigail Zwerner was seriously wounded when a child in her first-grade class fired a single shot at her while she was teaching at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia. The January 2023 shooting left her requiring multiple surgeries.
Testifying in court, Zwerner described the terrifying moments after being shot.
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“I thought I was dying, I thought I had died,” she said, according to the BBC. “I thought I was on my way to heaven or in heaven, but then it all got black.”
In 2023, Zwerner appeared on the Today show and detailed the devastating injuries she sustained from a single bullet.
"The initial gunshot went through my left hand and ruptured the middle bone as well as the index finger and the thumb," she explained. "The gunshot then went into my chest up here, where it actually still remains."
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Photographs from inside the classroom show children's tables and chairs, with a handgun lying on the floor.
Now, disturbing bodycam footage of paramedics rushing to help the wounded teacher has been shown in court.
In the video, Zwerner appears 'deathly pale' as first responders urgently work to stabilise her. At one point, a paramedic asks if she knows her name, to which she responds 'Abby Zwerner.'
The bodycam footage also captures a first responder in the ambulance asking: "How many times was she shot?"
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Zwerner is now suing the school's assistant principal, Ebony Parker, alleging that she failed to act despite being warned about the danger.
School staff had told Parker about concerns that the student had a gun approximately 45 minutes before the shooting occurred, the BBC reported.
Zwerner's lawsuit alleges four people told former school administrator Ebony Parker they were concerned the child had a gun, but she failed to act on their concerns.
During the trial, a deputy sheriff testified about what he saw when law enforcement arrived at the scene with weapons drawn.
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"We were quite taken aback," he recalled. "We didn't expect to see so young a suspect."
Zwerner also reflected on how the shooting continues to affect her life and relationships, even after the physical wounds began to heal.
“The best I can explain it, I still feel connected and close, but it’s also that feeling of distance, a little numbness and it’s like I know I trust the person I’m with, I love them, I know them, there’s just something that’s different, I can’t necessarily put it into words,” Zwerner testified.
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The student who fired the gun was not charged with wrongdoing and is reportedly in the care of a relative and enrolled at a different school.
Meanwhile, the student’s mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison on charges of child neglect and federal weapons violations.
Rebekah Jordan