A 6-year-old Virginia boy who shot his teacher in their classroom earlier this year allegedly boasted about what he had done, declaring “I shot that b***h dead,” according to a newly unsealed search warrant.
“I did it,” the first grader at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News said while being restrained by another teacher, WTKR reported citing a copy of the warrant. “I got my mom’s gun last night.”
Abigail Zwerner, 25, suffered a gunshot wound to her hand and upper torso in the Jan. 6 shooting. She spent nearly two weeks in a hospital and later sued the school district for $40 million, alleging that the child “had a history of random violence” that was repeatedly ignored.
“Obviously this is a very troubled child,” James Ellenson, an attorney for the boy’s family, said in an email Thursday. ”He is receiving intense therapy and we wish to thank the dedicated staff who are working with him.”
The child has not been charged due to his young age while his mother, Deja Taylor, was indicted back in April on state charges of felony child neglect and misdemeanor recklessly leaving a loaded firearm as to endanger a child.
In June she was additionally charged with unlawfully using a controlled substance while in possession of a firearm and making a false statement during the purchase of a firearm. She pleaded guilty to these federal charges and faces up to 25 years in prison when sentenced in October.
Taylor, in an interview back in May, said that she didn’t know how her son accessed her gun. She also said that her son really liked his teacher and he was “a great kid,” but that week he felt like his teacher was ignoring him.
Ellenson also said that nobody knew how he accessed her firearm.
Taylor told police, according to the newly released warrant, that she believed that on the morning of the shooting her gun was stored in her purse, with the trigger lock in place, on top of her bedroom dresser. The key to the gunlock was kept under her mattress.
Federal prosecutors said that a lockbox wasn’t found, nor was a key or trigger lock, ABC News reported.