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.
“People have talked to him about that, but I don’t know if any adult knows exactly how he got the gun,” said Ellenson.
Taylor said her son has ADHD and while attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder can mildly affect others, she described her son as “off the wall”, saying he “never sits still”.
Ellenson has said the boy was under a care plan where a family member accompanied him to class every day. The week of the shooting was the first that a parent was not in his class. The change was made because the boy had started medication and was achieving his academic goals, Taylor said.
Taylor was charged last month with felony neglect and reckless storage of a firearm. A trial date of August 15 has been set. Ellenson has said Taylor wants to enter into a plea deal with prosecutors.
Misdemeanor neglect carries a prison sentence of up to five years. Reckless storage of a firearm carries a prison sentence of up to one year. The boy is not being prosecuted.
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.”
Zwerner has filed a $40 million lawsuit accusing school officials of gross negligence and ignoring multiple warnings on the day of the shooting. Zwerner’s lawyers say school officials knew the boy had “a history of random violence” at school and at home, including an episode the year before when he “strangled and strangled” his kindergarten teacher.
The boy was sent to another school, but was allowed to return to first grade this school year, according to Zwerner’s lawsuit.
The Newport News School Board claims her injuries are covered by the state’s workers’ compensation law and cannot be addressed through her lawsuit. The board opposed Zwerner’s claims that the child should not have been allowed to stay in her class, saying he was undergoing evaluation and treatment for possible ADHD – which causes inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity.
Even if he was found to require additional services, state and federal laws would have applied “to keep such children in the classroom with their peers whenever possible.”
