- Brandon Drenon
- BBC News, Washington
image source, Abby Zwerner/Facebook
Abigail Zwerner, victim of a school shooting in Virginia, United States.
The American teacher who was shot by a six-year-old student said she will never forget the look on the boy’s face when he pointed the gun at her.
Abigail Zwernerwho is 25 years old and a teacher at Richneck Elementary School in the city of Newport, Virginia, spoke publicly for the first time after being shot by an elementary student on January 6.
“I thought he was dead,” Zwerner told NBC’s Today show this week.
In the interview broadcast on Tuesday, the journalist Savannah Guthrie asked him what he remembered from that day.
“In the morning it seemed like a normal school day, but I started hearing things and things started happening that made my fear increase,” Zwerner said.
Police have stated that the boy brought the gun in his backpack to school.
Zwerner is considering suing the school district after he was shot in the hand and upper chest following what police described as an “altercation” with the first grader.
The teacher’s lawyer, in a notice of intent to sue, alleges that those responsible for the educational institution had been warned on multiple occasions that the student had a firearm and that they did not respond appropriately.
The memory of the attack
Zwerner has said that he clearly remembers the moment the gun was pointed at him.
“I remember the look on his face. I remember feeling something. It was a pretty scary day“.
image source, Getty Images
Students at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, on January 30, 2023.
The journalist asked Zwerner about his left hand, after he appeared on camera with it wrapped in medical gauze.
“The initial shot went through my left hand, breaking my middle bone, as well as my index finger and thumb. The shot entered my chest, up here, where it still remains“The victim said pointing above the heart. “So I have a scar up here. I still have some bullet fragments up here.”
Zwerner explained that doctors at the hospital had told him that the gunshot wound “could have been deadly“, but that since the bullet went through his hand “most likely he saved my life.”
In the first moments after being shot, Zwerner said the first thing on his mind was the safety of his students. She carried them out of the classroom despite her injuries before being sent by ambulance to the hospital.
The younger
Earlier this month, Newport News District Attorney Howard Gwynn stated that his office would not file charges against the minor. “The prospect that a six-year-old could be tried is problematic” because the child is too young to understand the legal system, the prosecutor told NBC News.
child’s familyshe hasn’t been charged either and has said that the minor suffered from an “acute disability”. They also alleged that he rarely attended school without one of his parents present. However, on the day of the shooting, he had arrived at the school alone.
The firearm was legally acquired and belonged to the boy’s mother, according to police.
In the aftermath of the incident, the school’s superintendent was fired and the vice principal resigned. Since then, Richneck Elementary School has installed full time security and metal detectors.
In the NBC interview, Zwerner has said that he sometimes has nightmares about the shooting and that he has trouble getting out of bed some days due to difficult recovery.
“I’m not sure when the shock will wear off… I think about it every day.”
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