Mother of 6-year-old boy who shot his Virginia teacher faces two new federal charges

The mother of a 6-year-old boy accused of shooting and seriously wounding his first-grade teacher earlier this year in Virginia faces two new federal charges, according to court documents filed on Monday. 

Deja Taylor is accused of unlawfully using a controlled substance while in possession of a firearm and making a false statement during the purchase of a firearm. The new charges follow felony charges filed in April accusing Taylor of child neglect and endangerment. 

Taylor “knowingly made a false and fictitious written statement to Winfree Firearms,” a gun shop in Grafton, Va., from which she purchased a 9mm semiautomatic handgun, court documents filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia allege. The documents also allege that Taylor falsely claimed on Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives application forms that she did not use marijuana despite unlawfully using the drug.

Abby Zwerner, a 25-year-old teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, was shot in the hand and chest by a student on Jan. 6 as she sat at a reading table in her classroom. She spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and has had four surgeries since the shooting.

While the boy was not charged in connection with the shooting, a grand jury returned an indictment charging his mother with “felony child neglect and misdemeanor recklessly leaving a loaded firearm so as to endanger a child,” Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard Gwynn said in April. Taylor will return to court in August to face those charges, CBS affiliate WTVR reported.

The boy used his mother’s gun, police said, which had been purchased legally.

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Family members said the gun was secured. They also noted the 6-year-old boy suffers from an acute disability.

Zwerner in April filed a $40 million lawsuit, accusing school officials of gross negligence for allegedly ignoring multiple warnings that the boy had a gun and was in a “violent mood” on the day of the shooting.