The six-year-old Virginia school shooting case returns to focus as court records explain why the child was not criminally charged.
The six-year-old Virginia boy who shot his first-grade teacher, Abby Zwerner, at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News in January 2023 was not prosecuted for the attack because of his age. Newly released police body camera footage and court records have brought renewed attention to the shooting, the child’s history of behavioral difficulties and the failures that preceded the incident.
The shooting happened on January 6, 2023, inside a first-grade classroom. Zwerner was seriously injured when the child, identified publicly only as J.T., fired a 9mm Taurus handgun. According to the newly released footage, the child verbally confronted responding officers after the shooting, using profanity as school staff restrained him.
“Both y’all want a f–king piece of me, bitch?!” he shouted at officers, according to the recording, before adding, “F–k you, bitch.”
The footage also shows officers locating the handgun on the classroom floor. When asked where he had obtained it, the child acknowledged taking it from home, saying, “I stole that from my mom.”
The circumstances surrounding the shooting included concerns about the child’s behavior and the support he was receiving at school. In the body camera recording, reading specialist Amy Kovac told officers that the child had been attending school on a modified schedule and was supposed to be picked up by his mother at 2:30 p.m. She also said it was his first week attending without his mother accompanying him to school.
Virginia’s legal system treats children under seven differently from older defendants. Under the legal doctrine of infancy, children below that age are presumed incapable of forming the criminal intent required for prosecution. As a result, J.T. did not face criminal charges for shooting Zwerner. Instead, court records show that he was ordered to spend 227 days in inpatient psychiatric care.
The case also raised questions about what happened before the shooting and whether more could have been done to protect the child and those around him. School staff had been managing his behavior, while his mother, Deja Nicole Taylor, had been responsible for his care and supervision.
Taylor faced criminal consequences over the incident. She pleaded guilty to felony child neglect in Virginia and federal firearm charges, serving nearly two years in prison. Federal prosecutors said she had lied about her marijuana use on a background check when purchasing the handgun used in the shooting.
Court proceedings also brought to light earlier incidents involving the child. Prosecutors said that when he was five, he had twice taken his mother’s car keys and driven her vehicle. One of those incidents ended in a crash, raising further concerns about his supervision and the risks he posed to himself and others.
Update: Abby Zwerner case
Below is the released footage of the 6 YO right after he shot Abby.
As a reminder:
*Abby still suffers with physical issues.
*The vice principle was charged criminally, but not convicted for her negligence related to the shooting.
*Abby was awarded $10 million for the failures by the vice principle.
*6 YO (JT) was taken away from the mother, Deja Taylor, and is with relatives. JT was never charged due to his age.
*JT’s mother was charged federally with gun/drug charges and locally with child neglect charges. She served 4 years and is out now.
Prediction: We will see JT again in the criminal justice system thanks to how his disgraceful mother raised him. Kids aren’t born wanting to kill. They are abused and suffer great emotional damage that is almost impossible to reverse based on my experience working gangs.
#AbbyZwerner
#Schoolshooting— Jennifer Coffindaffer (@CoffindafferFBI) October 7, 2026
J.T.’s great-grandfather and legal guardian, Calvin Taylor, argued that the child had also been failed by the adults and agencies expected to help him. Speaking in a January 2024 interview, he said the family had tried to secure assistance before the shooting but believed that the response had been inadequate.
“He was a victim before that date,” Calvin Taylor said. He disputed the idea that the family had simply ignored the child’s difficulties, explaining that he and his other daughters had helped his granddaughter seek support. He also criticised the lack of follow-up after a safety plan was introduced following the earlier car incident.
The child has since moved to a different academic environment and received counselling, according to the account provided in the report. He has also expressed remorse for the injuries inflicted on Zwerner.
The case has drawn attention to the limits of criminal responsibility for very young children, as well as the difficult questions surrounding school safety, parental supervision and early intervention when a child displays serious behavioral problems. While the law prevented a criminal prosecution because of J.T.’s age, the shooting left a teacher seriously injured and exposed concerns about the safeguards that were in place before the gun entered the classroom.
