Joe Harker
Unsealed court documents allege that the six-year-old boy who shot and injured his teacher Abigail Zwerner earlier this year said 'I shot that b***h dead' afterwards.
The first grade teacher suffered gunshot wounds to the hand and chest on 6 January at Richneck Elementary School, Virginia.
She was shot by a six-year-old boy with an 'acute disability' who, according to the family's statement, was under a care plan that required a parent to go in with him, though none was present on the day of the shooting.
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Zwerner said that the gunshot could have been 'fatal' if not for the bullet first going through the hand she'd held out before striking her in the chest.
She has since launched a $40 million lawsuit against the school over allegations that they failed to act on warnings that the child had brought a weapon in.
Her attorney claims that teachers and other employees at the school made administrators aware on three occasions on 6 January that the boy had a gun with him.
Now unsealed court documents pertaining to the shooting claim that the boy said 'I shot the b***h dead' after the shooting.
The documents allege that Zwerner told police when she was in hospital that the child 'pulled a firearm out of his pocket and pointed it' at her.
She then claims she asked the boy 'what are you doing with that' before he shot her.
The six-year-old was apparently restrained by a reading specialist following the shooting and was kept restrained until police arrived, and he allegedly told her 'I did it' and claimed that he'd 'got my mom's gun last night'.
The child has not been charged as prosecutors have deemed him to be too young, though his mother, Deja Taylor, has been charged with felony child neglect and misdemeanour recklessly leaving a loaded firearm as to endanger a child.
In June, she was also charged with unlawfully using a controlled substance while in possession of a firearm and making a false statement during the purchase of a firearm, pleading guilty to those charges.
Her sentencing for those guilty pleas is scheduled for 18 October.
Following the shooting, the boy's family had released a statement saying that the gun was 'secured' and that the week the shooting occurred was 'the first week when we were not in class with him'.
According to a statement from the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, a search of Taylor's house and that of her mother's in January did not find a lockbox or trigger lock for the gun.
The statement also said that Taylor faces up to 25 years in prison for the charges she pleaded guilty to, but noted that 'actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties'.