Mother of a six-year-old boy who shot his teacher in Virginia pleads guilty to felony child neglect on state charges

The mother of a six-year-old boy who shot his teacher at Virginia’s Richneck Elementary School earlier this year has entered a guilty plea for felony child neglect on state charges. According to reports from American media, this plea was part of an arrangement with prosecutors to settle a state case linked to the incident.

Deja Taylor, a 26-year-old mother who owned the gun her son used to shoot his first-grade teacher, Abigail Zwerner, admitted to a charge of felony child neglect as a component of her plea agreement. She acknowledged that the firearm was stored in a manner that allowed her son to access it.

Although this charge carries a maximum possible sentence of five years in prison, the prosecutors indicated that they won’t seek more than six months due to the plea agreement. However, Judge Chris Papile maintained the option to impose a sentence outside that recommendation during her sentencing scheduled for October 27.

Taylor’s legal representative previously mentioned that they were uncertain about how the boy had gained access to the gun, as it had been stored with a trigger lock on a high shelf within a bedroom closet.

However, on Tuesday, an assistant Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney stated that the boy retrieved the gun from his mother’s purse, placed on a dresser. Prosecutors clarified that the weapon had not been secured with a trigger lock.

Investigators reported that the boy had conveyed to them, “I stole it because I needed to shoot my teacher.” Despite this statement, Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard Gwynn confirmed that the six-year-old would not face criminal charges.

The incident unfolded on January 6 earlier this year, when the boy brought a gun to school concealed in his backpack. At the end of the day, he retrieved the gun and fired it at his teacher, the police said.

Recently unsealed court documents revealed that the boy had also boasted about the incident. Amy Kovac, a reading specialist at Richneck, recounted the boy’s words during an interview, stating that he appeared proud and stunned her with his statement: “I did it… I shot the b**** dead.”

The teacher, Zwerner, fortunately survived the shooting, sustaining injuries to her hand and upper chest. She underwent four surgeries and spent two weeks in the hospital. Following the incident, she filed a $40 million lawsuit against the school, alleging gross negligence and accusing them of disregarding warning signs of the child’s aggressive behavior. The lawsuit, filed in April, argues that the defendants were aware of the child’s history.