Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,
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.
The kid is seen telling the officers, “Both y’all want a fucking piece of me, bitch?!” Kovac tells him to stop. He answers, “**** you, bitch,” and on and on it goes from there.
This is a kid who is barely older than toddler age.
He told them he stole the gun from his mother. A sheriff’s deputy found the 9mm Taurus on the classroom floor, 15 to 20 feet away, with seven more rounds still in it. Zwerner had already got her students out. The bullet went through her hand and into her chest. She collapsed in the school office.
Police Chief Steve Drew said at the time that the shooting “was not accidental. It was intentional,” and called Zwerner “a hero.”
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.
Circuit Court Judge Christopher Papile gave her two years on the state count, more than the six months prosecutors had asked for. “A parent’s ultimate and overarching and primary and paramount responsibility is to keep a child safe,” he said. “To protect the child. To keep them from bad influences. To keep them from dangerous situations. To keep them healthy and nurtured. Ms. Taylor has abdicated most if not all of these responsibilities.”
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.
The school had warnings the same day. Staff told assistant principal Ebony Parker the child might have a gun. A jury later found that doing nothing was gross negligence and awarded Zwerner $10 million. Her lawyer, Diane Toscano, told that jury: “Who would think a 6-year-old would bring a gun to school and shoot their teacher? It’s Dr. Parker’s job to believe that that is possible. It’s her job to investigate it and get to the very bottom of it.” Parker’s lawyer called that “Monday morning quarterbacking.”
In May 2026 a judge threw out eight felony child-neglect counts against Parker before the case ever reached a verdict. Circuit Court Judge Rebecca Robinson said from the bench, “What happened that day was awful,” and later, defending the decision to blur the child’s face on the public tape, “I signed up for that, but this 6-year-old did not.”
Awful is not an explanation. A first-grader who tells police he stole a gun so he could shoot his teacher did not arrive at that sentence in a vacuum.
The Richneck tape lands in the same feed as clips of other children who have not shot anyone yet but are already rehearsing the part.
One, posted last month, shows toddlers hanging out of a car window with styrofoam cups, throwing finger guns and middle fingers. The account that spread it asked why anyone was surprised to see “their offspring throwing up gun hand gestures and sticking up the middle finger.”
Commentator Jeffery Mead urged, “This is very clear evidence of a problematic culture. Black Americans as a whole have a culture problem and our standards are too low. We have to fix the culture.”
A separate clip of two little girls in matching pink, bandanas and beads, drew the same argument from the comments under it: the degenerate performance is being rewarded, not corrected.
These kids are like this for a reason, and we all know what the reason is. The parents.
None of these children are naturally like this. The head bobbing, the finger guns, the “come get it, bitch” attitude. Sometimes mimicry is cute, until a teacher is bleeding out on the office floor and other children are cowering for their lives.
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[ H/T The Burning Platform ]
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.
The kid is seen telling the officers, “Both y’all want a fucking piece of me, bitch?!” Kovac tells him to stop. He answers, “**** you, bitch,” and on and on it goes from there.
This is a kid who is barely older than toddler age.
He told them he stole the gun from his mother. A sheriff’s deputy found the 9mm Taurus on the classroom floor, 15 to 20 feet away, with seven more rounds still in it. Zwerner had already got her students out. The bullet went through her hand and into her chest. She collapsed in the school office.
Police Chief Steve Drew said at the time that the shooting “was not accidental. It was intentional,” and called Zwerner “a hero.”
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.
Circuit Court Judge Christopher Papile gave her two years on the state count, more than the six months prosecutors had asked for. “A parent’s ultimate and overarching and primary and paramount responsibility is to keep a child safe,” he said. “To protect the child. To keep them from bad influences. To keep them from dangerous situations. To keep them healthy and nurtured. Ms. Taylor has abdicated most if not all of these responsibilities.”
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.
The school had warnings the same day. Staff told assistant principal Ebony Parker the child might have a gun. A jury later found that doing nothing was gross negligence and awarded Zwerner $10 million. Her lawyer, Diane Toscano, told that jury: “Who would think a 6-year-old would bring a gun to school and shoot their teacher? It’s Dr. Parker’s job to believe that that is possible. It’s her job to investigate it and get to the very bottom of it.” Parker’s lawyer called that “Monday morning quarterbacking.”
In May 2026 a judge threw out eight felony child-neglect counts against Parker before the case ever reached a verdict. Circuit Court Judge Rebecca Robinson said from the bench, “What happened that day was awful,” and later, defending the decision to blur the child’s face on the public tape, “I signed up for that, but this 6-year-old did not.”
Awful is not an explanation. A first-grader who tells police he stole a gun so he could shoot his teacher did not arrive at that sentence in a vacuum.
The Richneck tape lands in the same feed as clips of other children who have not shot anyone yet but are already rehearsing the part.
One, posted last month, shows toddlers hanging out of a car window with styrofoam cups, throwing finger guns and middle fingers. The account that spread it asked why anyone was surprised to see “their offspring throwing up gun hand gestures and sticking up the middle finger.”
Commentator Jeffery Mead urged, “This is very clear evidence of a problematic culture. Black Americans as a whole have a culture problem and our standards are too low. We have to fix the culture.”
A separate clip of two little girls in matching pink, bandanas and beads, drew the same argument from the comments under it: the degenerate performance is being rewarded, not corrected.
These kids are like this for a reason, and we all know what the reason is. The parents.
None of these children are naturally like this. The head bobbing, the finger guns, the “come get it, bitch” attitude. Sometimes mimicry is cute, until a teacher is bleeding out on the office floor and other children are cowering for their lives.
Tweet
Continue reading...
[ H/T The Burning Platform ]
