Teacher shot by 6-year-old: ‘I thought I had died’
A Virginia teacher who was shot and wounded by her 6-year-old student said it has changed her life and she has vivid memories and night- mares about that day.
“I just will never forget the look on his face that he gave me while he pointed the gun directly at me,” firstgrade teacher Abby Zwer- ner said during an exclusive interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie about the stu- dent. “It’s changed me. It’s changed my life.”
She said she’s still in shock and can’t make sense of it, in a portion of the interview that was aired Tuesday morn- ing on “Today.”
“I’m not sure when the shock will ever go away because of just how surreal it was and the vivid memo- ries I have of that day. I think about it daily. Sometimes I have nightmares,” she said.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the Jan. 6 shooting, Zwerner said in a portion of the interview that was aired Monday on “NBC Nightly News” that she’s had a challenging recovery. She’s had four surgeries and has some days when she “can’t get up out of bed.” Other days she can go about her day.
“For going through what I’ve gone through, I try to stay positive. You know, try to have a positive outlook on what’s happened and where my future’s heading,” Zwer- ner said.
Zwerner was hospitalized for nearly two weeks after being shot in the chest and left hand as she taught her class at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia. The shooting rattled the military shipbuilding community and sent shock waves around the country, with many wondering how a child so young could get access to a gun and shoot his teacher.
In the moments after she was shot, Zwerner said the other first-graders in her class were screaming.
She was terrified. But her concern centered on the children — “I just wanted to get my babies out of there.”
“I think they knew as well that they had to get out of there,” Zwerner said. “But they were extremely fright- ened and screaming.”
What happened next is still kind of a blur. Zwerner got the kids out of the classroom.
She knew she needed help. The fire alarm had gone off, heightening her awareness that she’d been shot.
She had trouble breathing. Her vision failed.
“I went to the office and I just passed out,” Zwerner said. “I thought I had died.”
Zwerner intends to sue the district, according to a legal notice filed by her attorney.
This month, top Newport News prosecutor Howard Gwynn said his office will not criminally charge the boy because he wouldn’t understand the legal system and what a charge means. Gwynn has yet to decide if any adults will be charged.
The boy had fired his mother’s gun, which police said was legally purchased. An attorney for the boy’s family has said that the firearm was secured on a closet shelf and had a on it.