‘F*** you, b****’: Six-year-old who shot teacher yells at cops in bodycam video
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Police bodycam footage captured the moment a 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher in Newport News, Virginia, began cursing at and hitting another teacher who was holding on to him while police searched the classroom.
The shooting occurred in January 2023 at Richneck Elementary School, and the footage has now been unsealed.
The bodycam footage, obtained by The Virginian-Pilot and The Daily Press, shows the first-grader screaming at officers responding to the incident, yelling “both y’all want a f****** piece of me, b***h.”
The little boy is blurred out in the video but it’s clear he’s being held by another teacher, who he verbally abuses and strikes during the police investigation.
“F*** you, b***h,” the 6-year-old says.
The boy — known as JT to protect his identity — shot his teacher, Abby Zwerner, 25, on January 6, 2023. The gun jammed before he could fire again and the boy was restrained. Zwerner survived the incident.
Police learned that the gun the boy used belonged to his mother, Deja Taylor. She was sentenced to nearly four years in prison between her state and federal convictions related to her son and the shooting.
The footage shows Amy Kovac, the teacher restraining the boy, telling police that the 6-year-old “has been on a modified schedule. His mother is to pick him up at 2:30. This is his first week without his mother coming to school with him.”
Kovac then explains how she rushed down the hall to check on Zwerner after she heard the gunshot, and says she found the teacher shot and covered in blood.
JT shouts “f*** you b****” while she tries to explain what she saw. That prompts an officer to ask “do we have some small handcuffs?”
The boy continues to taunt the officers.
“I don’t care if you call backup. I don’t care if I go to jail, b****,” the child screams.
Kovac reprimands him for his behavior, which the boy responds to by striking her in the face, knocking off her glasses. The teacher maintains her composure despite the circumstances.
Zwerner was ultimately awarded $10 million by a Virginia jury after she sued the now-former Richneck Elementary School’s assistant principal, who she said had learned that the boy was carrying a gun the day before the shooting.
After the shooting, JT was taken into the custody of his great-grandfather, who lives in Newport News.
