A Newport News judge has unsealed nearly three minutes of body-camera video showing the chaotic moments after a 6-year-old boy shot his first-grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School, footage that captures the child cursing repeatedly at the reading specialist restraining him and at arriving police officers. The video, recorded by an officer, shows reading specialist Amy Kovac holding the boy in a bear hug as he swears at her and the officers around them.
The footage was played for jurors during the May trial of former Richneck assistant principal Ebony Parker, according to The Virginian-Pilot. Teacher Abigail Zwerner had just begun her afternoon reading class when the boy, identified in court records only as J.T., pulled a handgun from his jacket pocket and pointed it at her from about 10 feet away. The Virginian-Pilot reports that Zwerner was shot once, with the bullet striking her hand and chest, and that 16 students fled the classroom before she collapsed in the school office.
What the Unsealed Video Captures
According to the Virginian-Pilot's account of the footage, Kovac can be heard telling officers that the gun was still in the classroom and that J.T. had admitted to having one bullet. The outlet reports the boy had gun residue on his hand and that a sheriff's deputy found the 9mm Taurus handgun on the classroom floor, 15 to 20 feet from where he stood. Court documents cited by the paper say the handgun held seven additional rounds. A sheriff's deputy said, “I got a weapon,” and J.T. said the gun belonged to his mother and that he stole it from her.
Kovac testified that she called 911 after hearing the gunshot and saw blood on Zwerner, the Virginian-Pilot reported. Kovac also said J.T. punched her during the struggle and that he had been on a modified schedule at school. The Pilot's reporting notes that the day of the shooting marked the boy's first week attending Richneck without his mother accompanying him, and that he had been scheduled for pickup at 2:30 that afternoon.
Warnings Before the Shooting
Court testimony described in a separate account from dailypress.com states that Kovac learned from students that the boy had a gun in his bag before the shooting occurred. Three Richneck students told teachers the boy had a gun, and those concerns were relayed to Parker, according to the Virginian-Pilot's coverage of the case.
A special grand jury report cited by the Washington Post found that the boy should have been unenrolled from Richneck after choking a different teacher, but that administrative lapses allowed him to return to the school. Those warnings formed the backbone of the criminal case against Parker, who faced eight felony child-neglect counts accusing her of failing to act on reports that the boy was armed.
The Former Assistant Principal's Trial
Prosecutor Joshua Jenkins argued during the trial that only an administrator or school resource officer was authorized to order a search of a student for a weapon, per dailypress.com's reporting from the courtroom. The defense countered that other educators at the school also had the authority to remove students from danger or call 911.
The body-camera footage had been admitted into evidence as the prosecution's first exhibit during the trial. Robinson had initially ruled the video was open and not sealed, but Jenkins later asked the court to seal it because a minor appeared in it, and the judge marked the exhibit sealed. The Daily Press and the Virginian-Pilot filed motions in June seeking to unseal the recording, arguing the sealing order conflicted with First Amendment case law governing access to court records, while Parker's lawyers asked in July that the video remain sealed. Jenkins ultimately said Virginia law did not support continued sealing, and Robinson ordered the video released on the condition that the boy's face be blurred.
How the Video Was Prepared for Release
The court sent the footage to the two publications to assist with redactions, and the outlets blurred identifying details of the child and his classmates before publishing it, according to the Virginian-Pilot's account of the process. The publications opted not to remove or obscure the boy's own language captured on the recording. The Pilot reports the boy, now 9 or 10 years old, is in the custody of his great-grandfather and continues to live in Newport News.
The boy's mother, Deja Nicole Taylor, is 29 and has served time in both state and federal prison — the state sentence for child neglect and the federal sentence tied in part to lying on a background-check form, per the Virginian-Pilot. She was released from prison in February, the outlet reported. Court documents cited by the paper say J.T. took the gun from his mother's purse, placed it in his backpack and brought it to school before removing it from his jacket during the reading class.
Zwerner has filed a $40 million lawsuit alleging negligence by school officials, according to WAVY. Separate body-camera footage released by the Newport News Police Department has shown officers responding to the school and helping children in the aftermath of the shooting, WAVY has reported. The civil case remains pending as the newly unsealed classroom video renews public attention on the warnings that preceded one of the most closely watched school-shooting cases in recent Virginia history.
