Heartbreaking Footage: 6 Year Old Curses at Police Moments After Shooting His Teacher

Bodycam footage from the minutes after a first grade teacher was shot in her own classroom is now public, and it is difficult to sit through.

On Jan. 6, 2023, Abby Zwerner was reading with her students at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, when a 6 year old boy in her class fired a gun. The bullet tore through her left hand and lodged in her chest. It is still there, even after six surgeries.

The clip had been sealed. The Newport News Circuit Court released it to PEOPLE, and it had already been played as evidence in Zwerner’s civil case against former assistant principal Ebony Parker. Until now, the public had not seen it.

In the video, reading specialist Amy Kovac is sitting at a desk with her arms around the boy. His face is hidden and his name is withheld because he is a minor. As officers walk in, she points to the floor. “The gun is there,” she tells them. “He just admitted that he had one. He had one bullet.”

The child does not sound frightened. He curses and dares the adults in the room. “Y’all want a f—ing piece of me?” he shouts. When an officer asks where the weapon is, he answers, “It’s over there, whore.” Kovac tries to stop him. “Stop, that’s not how we speak to each other,” she says. He snaps back, “F— you. F— you. F— you, bitch.”

Kovac also tells police she had already raised the alarm. “I told the AP that there was a threat earlier about it,” she says. She was the one who called 911 after hearing the shot. On camera she checks whether the boy was hurt when the gun went off, and she notes gun residue on his hands. He says he is fine.

He keeps going. “If you want a piece of me, come get it all,” he tells the officers. “I don’t care if you call backup. I don’t care if I go to jail, bitch.” At one point he appears to strike Kovac, though the camera is briefly blocked. An officer then steps in. “Young man, come here. You’re going to come with me, son,” he says, and walks the child out of the room.

The boy also says he stole the gun from his mother.

That matches what later came out in court. Zwerner’s lawsuit said the student had a history of random violence and had attacked teachers and other students before, according to The New York Times. The Times reported that he took a loaded 9 millimeter handgun from the purse of his mother, Deja Taylor. A report in the Patch said the boy climbed onto a drawer to reach a dresser where the purse was sitting.

Taylor later pleaded guilty to felony child neglect and, in December 2023, was sentenced to two years in prison. The month before, she received one year and nine months on federal charges tied to using marijuana while owning a firearm and making false statements about drug use. The sentences run back to back.

Zwerner sued in April 2023. She said the shooting left her in physical pain and mental anguish, and she argued that Parker had been warned and did not act. In November 2025 a jury sided with her and awarded $10 million.

The child is now living with his great grandfather and attends another school. Zwerner is no longer teaching.