A former Virginia teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student in her classroom in 2023 testified Thursday that she thought she was dead that day.
Abe Zwirner testified in it $40 million lawsuit Filed against a former assistant principal accused of ignoring multiple warnings that a student had a weapon.
Zwirner was shot in the hand and chest in January 2023 while sitting at a reading table in her first-grade classroom at Rechnick Elementary School in Newport News. Zwirner He spent nearly two weeks in the hospitalShe required six surgeries and does not have full use of her left hand. A bullet missed her heart and remained in her chest.
“I thought I was dead. I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in heaven,” Zwirner testified. “But then everything went black. So, then I thought I’m not going to go there. Then my next memory is I see two of my co-workers around me and I realize I’m injured and they’re pressing where I was injured.”
The shooting sent shockwaves through the military shipbuilding community and the country, with many wondering How could a child so young get a gun And shoot his teacher.
Zwirner no longer works for the school district and said she has no plans to teach again. It was revealed in court on Wednesday that she had become a licensed beautician.
Zwirner answered questions on the stand for more than an hour.
A doctor testified Wednesday that Zwirner cannot make a strong fist with her left hand, which has less than half her normal grip strength.
Former assistant principal Ebony Parker was accused of failing to act after several people expressed concerns to her in the hours before the shooting that the student had a gun in his backpack.
Zwirner testified that she first heard about the gun before a class break from a reading specialist. The shooting happened a few hours later.
Despite her injuries, Zwirner was able to get her students out of the classroom. I eventually passed out in the school office.
“The moment passed so quickly,” she said.
Parker is the sole defendant in the lawsuit. The judge previously dismissed the district supervisor and the school principal as defendants.
Parker faces a separate criminal trial next month Eight counts Felony child neglect. Each charge is punishable by up to five years in prison upon conviction.
The student’s mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison on the charge The crime of child neglect and Federal gun fees. Her son told authorities that he got his mother’s gun by climbing up the stairs to reach the top of the dresser, where the firearm was in his mother’s purse.