Heartbreaking News: Virginia Mom of Boy Who Shot Teacher is Reportedly Depressed

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — The mother of a 6-year-old boy from Virginia who shot and hurt his teacher had been through some hard times before the incident, her lawyer said on Friday. She was taken to court for neglecting her child and not safely keeping the gun that her son used in the shooting. She had miscarriages and was feeling depressed in the year leading up to this incident.

On January 6th, a young boy shot his first grade teacher, Abigail Zwerner. She was injured in her left hand and chest area and had to stay at the hospital for two weeks. She has needed four operations since then due to the shooting. The identity of the boy’s mother is secreted away, but she was formally accused of this by a jury group and recently got released after paying $5,000 bail money.

The 25-year-old woman had a serious expression on her face and she was standing with her hands held together at her back when two accusations were presented in Newport News Circuit Court. She just answered “no, sir” when the judge asked her something then she quickly left without talking to reporters or TV cameras after the hearing.

The woman’s lawyer, James Ellenson, has said that she is trying to reach a deal with the prosecutors. He believes there are some “good reasons” which should make the prosecutors consider her request. One of those is due to the multiple times she has had miscarriages since January 2022 – one of them being an ectopic pregnancy. This happens when a baby starts growing in a fallopian tube instead of inside the uterus. As a result, she experienced post-partum depression.

Lawyer Ellenson said that he’s looking forward to working together with the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and wants the outcome of this situation to be fair and just. He has asked for a trial before a judge instead of a jury, and the trial date is set for Aug. 15th.

If found guilty, Neglect charge can result in up to five years in prison, while Recklessly storing a firearm can lead to one year in jail as punishment.

Ellenson said that the boy’s mother had purchased a gun and stored it on the top shelf of her closet with a trigger lock. Nobody knows how he got hold of the gun and brought it to school on the day of the shooting.

Last week, Zwerner started a legal case against the school system for $40 million because they didn’t follow warnings from teachers and other people about this boy having a gun.

The city prosecutor’s office said that they are looking into if any school employees did something wrong which could lead to them getting in trouble.

Ellenson mentioned that the boy has some kind of medical problem and was supposed to have one of his parents, grandparents or guardians with him during classes each day. But on the week when he brought the gun to school, nobody accompanied him.