RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Virginia teacher who authorities say was killed by a 6-year-old student is known as a hard-working educator, devoted to his students and passionate about his family’s profession, according to fellow teachers and city officials.
John Eley III, a former Newport News school board member, identified the first-grade teacher as 25-year-old Abby Zwerner. Zwerner was killed Friday at Richneck Elementary School, authorities said.
Shortly after the shooting, police said Zwerner had life-threatening injuries, but she improved and was listed in stable condition at a local hospital.
Eley and other city officials met with the school’s teachers and principal on Friday and later went to the hospital, where they met with members of Zwerner’s family, including several aunts who are also teachers.
“The family had jobs in education and said they were excited to do the job,” said Eley, who was recently elected to the Newport News City Council.
“The caregivers and other teachers talked about how she’s a good teammate, she’s a team player, she loves her kids, she’s just a good teacher.”
Cindy Hurst said her 8-year-old granddaughter is still reeling from the shooting. She was in Zwerner’s class last year and told her grandmother she was a great teacher.
“I hate that this happened,” Hurst told The Virginian-Pilot. “But life as we know it may never be the same again – I don’t know.”
Zwerner attended James Madison University, graduating in 2019 with a BA in Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies and minors in Elementary Education and Music. She graduated from JMU’s College of Education in 2020 with a master’s degree in education.
JMU President Jonathan Alger offered a message of support to Zwerner, his family, friends and fellow faculty members, students and their families.
“JMU stands ready to support those affected by this incident now and in the coming weeks,” Alger tweeted Saturday.
Billy Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot via AP
Police Chief Steve Drew said the boy shot and wounded the teacher with a gun in a first-grade classroom. He was later taken into police custody. Drew said the shooting was not accidental and was part of an altercation. No students were injured.
Police declined to describe what led to the altercation or any other details about what happened in the classroom, citing the ongoing investigation. They also declined to say how the boy got access to the gun or who owns the gun.
Virginia law does not allow children as young as 6 to be tried as adults. Also, a 6-year-old child is too young to be placed in the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice if convicted.
However, a juvenile judge would have the authority to revoke a parent’s custody and place a juvenile under the jurisdiction of the Department of Human Services.
Mayor Phillip Jones would not say where the boy is being held.
“We’re making sure he has all the services he needs right now,” Jones said Saturday.
Experts who study gun violence said the shooting represents an extremely rare event in which a child brings a gun to school and injures a teacher.
“It’s very rare, and it’s not something that the legal system is really designed or positioned to address,” said researcher David Riedman, founder of a database that tracks U.S. school shootings dating back to the 1970s.
On Saturday, he said he learned of only three other shootings by 6-year-old students during his time there. These include the fatal shooting of a fellow student in 2000 in Michigan and shootings that injured other students in 2011 in Texas and 2021 in Mississippi.
Riedman said he is aware of only one other case involving a student younger than the one who caused the school shooting, in which a 5-year-old student brought a gun into a Tennessee school in 2013 and accidentally discharged it. . No one was injured in that accident.
Newport News is a city of about 185,000 in southeastern Virginia known for its shipyard, which builds the nation’s aircraft carriers and other vessels for the United States Navy.
Richneck has about 550 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, according to the Virginia Department of Education website. Jones said there will be no classes at the school on Monday and Tuesday.
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