Newly Released Bodycam Shows Disturbing Moments After 6-Year-Old Shot His Teacher

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Newly released body-camera footage is shedding new light on the chaotic moments after a 6-year-old student shot his teacher inside a Virginia elementary school classroom in 2023.

The footage, recorded by Newport News Police Officer Brian Torrez, captures officers entering the first-grade classroom at Richneck Elementary School after the shooting.

The child, identified in court records as J.T., can be seen being restrained by reading specialist Amy Kovac as officers secure the classroom and locate the handgun.

The video had previously been used as evidence in court but was not publicly released until this week.

The shooting happened more than three years ago

The incident occurred on Jan. 6, 2023.

According to court records and police accounts, J.T. brought a 9mm handgun to school after taking it from his mother’s purse that morning.

During an afternoon reading class, he pulled the weapon from a jacket pocket and fired one round at his teacher, Abby Zwerner, from roughly 10 feet away.

The bullet passed through Zwerner’s hand and entered her chest.

She survived the shooting but suffered serious injuries and spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, undergoing multiple surgeries.

Bodycam captures the immediate aftermath

When officers arrived, Kovac was holding the boy and told police that he had admitted having a gun.

An officer soon located the handgun on the classroom floor.

The footage then shows J.T. behaving aggressively toward the adults around him, repeatedly using profanity and challenging officers who were attempting to take control of the situation.

At one point, he told officers that he did not care if they called for backup or if he went to jail.

The footage also captures an exchange in which J.T. acknowledges where the gun came from.

“My mom had that. I stole that from my mom,” he said, according to the released video.

Kovac later testified that the boy punched her in the face while she was restraining him. The moment itself is partially obscured by the officer’s body camera.

Earlier concerns were also raised

The newly released footage provides additional context about what school staff told police that day.

Kovac told officers that J.T. had previously been placed on a modified schedule and that his mother had been accompanying him at school.

She also indicated that the day of the shooting was his first week without his mother present in the classroom.

According to court records, school officials had previously been aware of behavioral concerns involving the child.

The circumstances surrounding the shooting later became the focus of a legal battle involving former Richneck assistant principal Ebony Parker.

Parker was indicted on eight felony counts of child neglect related to events preceding the shooting. A judge ultimately dismissed all eight charges in 2025.

What happened to the people involved?

Zwerner later pursued a civil lawsuit and was awarded $10 million following a trial involving Parker.

J.T. was too young to face criminal charges for the shooting under Virginia law.

His mother, Deja Nicole Taylor, was later sentenced in connection with child neglect and federal firearms-related offenses. She was released from federal prison in February 2026, according to reports.

The child is now living under the custody of his great-grandfather.

The release of the bodycam footage has renewed attention on the 2023 shooting and the warnings, school decisions and firearm-access issues that surrounded it.

More than three years later, the footage offers the public a previously unseen look at the immediate aftermath — while leaving broader questions about how the gun reached a first-grade classroom and whether earlier intervention could have prevented the shooting.