Blame The Parents…
8th October 2026
First-graders generally do not walk into reading class with a loaded 9mm, shoot the teacher, and then dare the police to come get them. But in this case, that is exactly what happened.
Body-camera footage from a shooting at Richneck Elementary in Newport News, Virginia, was released this week after over three years of being sealed.
The video shows a 6-year-old, identified in court records only as J.T., who had already shot first-grade teacher Abigail Zwerner. Reading specialist Amy Kovac had him in a bear hug when Newport News Officer Brian Torrez walked into the classroom 11. What happened next was even more astounding.
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The kid is seen telling the officers, “Both y’all want a fucking piece of me, bitch?!” Kovac tells him to stop. He answers, “Fuck you, bitch,” and on and on it goes from there.
As I’m sure you expect, it was a Child of Color from a one-parent family.
The gun belonged to Deja Nicole Taylor’s. Court documents say her son climbed onto her dresser that morning, took it from her purse, and put it in his backpack. Investigators later found about an ounce of marijuana in the home. Taylor pleaded guilty to felony child neglect and to federal charges for lying about drug use on the form she used to buy the pistol.
Horse: gone. Barn door: closed.
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark S. Davis, sentencing her to 21 months on the federal counts, called it “a dereliction of duty and responsibility in parenting” and said the case “cries out for imprisonment.” She has since been released. The boy, now 9 or 10, lives in Newport News with his great-grandfather. He was never charged. Virginia does not prosecute 6-year-olds.
And there you have it.
Stay out of Virginia.