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…