Graphic Content Advisory: The following article includes footage from police body cameras showing the aftermath of a school shooting incident.

In a Virginia courtroom, an elementary school teacher shared her harrowing experience of being shot by a 6-year-old student, recalling to jurors the moment she feared for her life. Newly released police body-camera footage reveals the chaotic scene that unfolded after the 2023 shooting inside her classroom.

Testifying on the stand, Abby Zwerner, aged 25 at the time, recounted how a routine school day turned into a fight for survival when a first-grader pulled the trigger of a 9-millimeter handgun. The bullet pierced her left hand and lodged in her chest, narrowly missing her heart.

“As I lay there at the school, I genuinely believed I was dying. I thought I had already passed away and was either on my way to heaven or already there,” Zwerner told the courtroom. “Then everything went dark, and I realized I wasn’t going anywhere.”

In response to this traumatic event, Zwerner has initiated a $40 million lawsuit against the former school administrator, Ebony Parker, accusing her of gross negligence for ignoring several warnings that the young boy might have brought a firearm to school. The lawsuit details that multiple staff members, including the guidance counselor, music teacher, and reading specialist, had expressed concerns about the child prior to the shooting.

Former Richneck Elementary School teacher Abby Zwerner looks back into the courtroom during her civil lawsuit trial, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Newport News, Va.  (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, Pool)

Zwerner also recalled the chilling moment she locked eyes with the boy just before the gun went off.

“It was a blank look,” she said. “But it wasn’t a blank look at all.”

Now, nearly two years later, Zwerner said she still struggles with simple physical tasks. Over lunch with her attorney, she remembered trying to open a small bag of potato chips, tugging at it from several angles before giving up.

“I eventually asked you to open it,” she told her lawyer on the stand. “It’s the same thing with water bottles.”

Abby Zwerner’s attorney Diane Toscano confers with her colleague Jeffrey Breit during Zwerner’s lawsuit Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Newport News, Va.  (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, Pool)

The psychological wounds, she added, have proved just as lasting. Zwerner described breaking down one morning when she realized her plan to see Hamilton, only to remember that the Broadway musical features scenes of dueling.

Since the shooting, Zwerner has stepped away from teaching and has graduated from cosmetology school. She hopes to pursue a career in beauty.

WATCH THE BODYCAM:

This week, jurors reviewed police body-camera footage showing the first officers arriving at the elementary school moments after the shooting. The video captures paramedics working to save Zwerner’s life on the scene.

In the recording, an officer can be heard calling for medics as Zwerner struggles to breathe.

“You’re going to be okay,” a paramedic is heard telling Zwerner.

The educator, who appeared pale in the body-camera footage with a pained expression on her face, is seen carried out on a stretcher. 

Newport News Circuit Court Judge Matthew Hoffman sidebars with attorneys during former Richneck Elementary School teacher Abby Zwerner’s civil lawsuit against the former assistant principal of the school where Zwerner was shot, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Newport News, Va.  (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, Pool)

Attorneys for the Newport News school district have argued that the shooting was an unforeseeable act by a child too young to be fully understood or anticipated. They’ve also contended that Parker and other staff followed reasonable procedures that day.

Former Richneck Elementary School assistant principal Ebony Parker looks back into the courtroom during Abby Zwerner’s lawsuit against her Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Newport News, Va. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, Pool)

Parker faces a separate criminal trial next month on eight counts of felony child neglect, one for “each of the eight bullets that endangered all the students” in Zwerner’s classroom, prosecutors said.

The mother of the boy who shot Zwerner, Deja Taylor, was sentenced to two years in prison for felony neglect and federal weapons charges.