The 6-year-old’s mother takes over responsibility

Nabil Anas

Global Courant 2023-05-10 20:12:00

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. –

Four months after a 6-year-old Virginia boy shot and wounded his teacher while she was teaching, a lawyer for the boy’s mother said it is still not clear how the boy got the gun.

Police have said Deja Taylor legally purchased the gun used in the Jan. 6 shooting and Taylor’s attorney, James Ellenson, has said she believed her gun was secured to a high closet shelf with a trigger lock. In an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” ​​that aired Wednesday, Ellenson said no one knows how he got it.

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Taylor said she feels responsible for the shooting and apologized to the teacher, 25-year-old Abigail Zwerner.

“That’s my son, so obviously as a parent I’m willing to take responsibility for him because he can’t take responsibility for himself,” Taylor said. “I’d really like to apologize… she got hurt. We were actually sort of forming a relationship with me because I had to be in class. And she’s a really smart person.”

Zwerner was shot in the hand and chest as she sat at a reading desk in her first grade classroom at Richneck Elementary. She was in the hospital for nearly two weeks, had four surgeries, and later told NBC that sometimes she “can’t get out of bed.”

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