Teacher who was shot by 6-year-old student at school testifies she thought she had died

A former Virginia teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student in her classroom in 2023 testified Thursday that she thought she had died that day.

Abby Zwerner testified in her $40 million lawsuit filed against a former assistant principal who is accused of ignoring multiple warnings that the student had a gun.

Zwerner was shot in the hand and chest in January 2023 as she sat at a reading table in her first-grade classroom at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News. Zwerner spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, required six surgeries and does not have the full use of her left hand. A bullet narrowly missed her heart and remains in her chest.

“I thought I had died. I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in heaven,” Zwerner testified. "But then it all got black. And so, I then thought I wasn’t going there. And then my next memory is I see two co-workers around me and I process that I’m hurt and they’re putting pressure on where I’m hurt.”

The shooting sent shock waves through the military shipbuilding community and the country, with many wondering how a child so young could access a gun and shoot his teacher.

Zwerner no longer works for the school district and has said she has no plans to teach again. It was revealed in court Wednesday that she has become a licensed cosmetologist.

Zwerner answered questions on the stand for more than an hour.

A physician testified Wednesday that Zwerner can’t make a tight fist with her left hand, which has less than half its normal grip strength.

Former assistant principal Ebony Parker is accused of failing to act after several people voiced concerns to her in the hours before the shooting that the student had a gun in his backpack.

Zwerner testified she first heard about the gun prior to class recess from a reading specialist. The shooting happened a few hours later.

Despite her injuries, Zwerner was able to hustle her students out of the classroom. She eventually passed out in the school office.

“The moment went by very fast,” she said.

Parker is the only defendant in the lawsuit. A judge previously dismissed the district’s superintendent and the school principal as defendants.

Parker faces a separate criminal trial next month on eight counts of felony child neglect. Each of the counts is punishable by up to five years in prison upon a conviction.

The student's mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for felony child neglect and federal weapons charges. Her son told authorities he got his mother’s handgun by climbing onto a drawer to reach the top of a dresser, where the firearm was in his mom’s purse.

Abby Zwerner's attorney Diane Toscano confers with her colleague Jeffrey Breit during Zwerner's lawsuit Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Newport News, Va. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, Pool)

Newport News Circuit Court Judge Matthew Hoffman sidebars with attorneys during Former Richneck Elementary School teacher Abby Zwerner's civil lawsuit against the former assistant principal of the school where Zwerner was shot, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Newport News, Va. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, Pool)

Former Richneck Elementary School assistant principal Ebony Parker looks back into the courtroom during Abby Zwerner's lawsuit against her Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Newport News, Va. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, Pool)

Former Richneck Elementary School teacher Abby Zwerner looks back into the courtroom during her civil lawsuit trial, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Newport News, Va. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, Pool)

FILE - Signs stand outside Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Va., Jan. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Denise Lavoie, File)

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This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260112647458/en/

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From left: Founders Miles Dotson, Gabe Elias and Christopher Reyes, PhD