In January 2023, a 6-year-old child shot first-grade teacher Abby Zwerner in her classroom.
After surviving her injuries, Zwerner filed a lawsuit in April 2023 against the school’s assistant principal, Ebony Parker. Zwerner noted that the incident caused her “physical pain and mental anguish”.
Diane Toscano, her attorney at the time, stated in a statement, “Abby was shot by a six-year-old student, and she will never be the same.” She’s had four surgeries and still has a gunshot stuck within her.
Zwerner won the lawsuit over three years later, in November 2025, and the jury paid him $10 million. While she has moved on to pursue another love outside of the classroom, Zwerner has spoken about how the incident continues to affect her physically and emotionally.
So, where is Abby Zwerner today? Here’s everything you should know about the former schoolteacher.
Who is Abby Zwerner?
Zwerner, a former first-grade teacher, was shot in her classroom at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia. She was 25 years old when the shooting occurred, according to CBS News.
Zwerner adored teaching and described to Today the first time she stepped into her classroom.
“It was great. “It was the moment you’d been waiting for,” she explained. “This is what I have been practicing. This is what I studied. “It is finally here.”
Who was Abby Zwerner’s students?
The identify of the youngster who shot Zwerner has not been revealed because he is a minor.
During the trial, he was identified as a 6-year-old male student of Zwerner’s at the school where she taught.
According to The New York Times, in the complaint, Zwerner said that the youngster had “a history of random violence” and had previously attacked teachers and other students.
Zwerner apparently mentioned to Parker on the morning of the shooting that the kid was in a “violent mood.”
What has happened to Abby Zwerner?
Zwerner was shot on January 6, 2023, in her classroom at Richneck Elementary School.
According to a March 2023 Today interview, the teacher was sitting at a table reading to her kids when one of them pulled the trigger and shot her. The bullet passed through her left hand and stuck in her chest, where it currently resides.
“I just will never forget the look on his face that he gave me while he pointed the gun directly at me,” she told Today in 2008.
Despite being shot, Zwerner managed to accompany her kids out of the classroom. She then walked to the school office and passed out. The bullet caused her lung to collapse, according to The New York Times.
“I believed I was dead. According to the Associated Press, Zwerner stated during the trial that he believed he was either on his way to or already in heaven. “But suddenly it all turned black. As a result, I assumed I would not be traveling there. And then my next memory is of two coworkers surrounding me, and I realize that I’m hurt, and they’re applying pressure on where I’m hurt.”
According to NBC News, the shooting occurred on the student’s first day back to class after receiving a two-day suspension for slamming Zwerner’s phone.
How did Abby Zwerner’s student obtain a gun?
According to The New York Times, the youngster took the loaded 9mm handgun from his mother, Deja Taylor’s purse. According to the Patch, the youngster stated that he climbed into a drawer to reach the top of a dresser, where the purse with the pistol sat.
Taylor informed detectives that the gun was secured with a trigger lock, but one was never located.
“I am, as a parent, obviously willing to take responsibility for him because he can’t take responsibility” for himself, she told Good Morning America in May 2023.
Taylor went on to say, “I just truly want to apologize that… [Zwerner] was hurt.” We were genuinely developing a friendship because I had to be in the classroom. And she is a very clever person.
After Zwerner was shot and left the classroom, reading specialist Amy Kovac entered and restrained the youngster, according to CBS News.
“I shot that bitch dead,” the student stated, according to Kovac. “I got my mom’s gun last night.”
Taylor received a two-year prison sentence in December 2023 after pleading guilty to felony child neglect, according to The New York Times. According to the newspaper, she was sentenced to one year and nine months in jail the previous month for using marijuana while in possession of a firearm and making false claims regarding drug usage. The sentences will be served consecutively.
According to CBS News, in a statement given by one of her attorneys after her sentencing, Taylor stated that she would feel guilt “for the rest of my life.”
Where is Abby Zwerner today?
On November 6, 2025, a jury awarded Zwerner $10 million in her civil case against Parker. She requested $40 million.
In the nearly three years since the shooting, Zwerner has had six surgeries and is still unable to completely use her left hand.
“Overall, I would say I do struggle with things, doing things,” she told CNN in October 2025, exposing her trouble with simple activities like opening chip bags and water bottles. “I just want to stay home.”
Despite her passion for teaching, Zwerner has not returned to the classroom because of “anxiety, PTSD, and fear,” as she told WVEC News in January 2024.
“I was in my career that I went to college for, that I worked hard to get, and I loved it,” she told me. “I never imagined that a 6-year-old would shoot me in my classroom. I feel like it’s just been snatched away from me.”
Zwerner told The Virginian-Pilot that the shooting was “always going to be there with me… and it’s always there in the back of my head.”
NPR reports that she has become a licensed cosmetologist.
Where is Abby Zwerner’s student currently?
The student who shot Zwerner did not face any criminal charges.
“We do not believe the law supports charging and convicting a 6-year-old with aggravated assault,” said attorney Howard Gwynn to WTKR in March 2023.
In a January 2024 interview with WAVY, Calvin Taylor, the boy’s great-grandfather, said the boy goes to “a different, undisclosed school,” and that he “loves to cook, and [makes] brownies for his family.”
Taylor mentioned that his great-grandson “hopes to learn to ride a horse one day.”
