Photo: Tribune News Service
The six-year-old boy who shot his teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, appeared to show no remorse while speaking with school administrators.
Unsealed documents related to the case obtained by WTKR detail what the boy said to Amy Kovac, a reading specialist at the school who restrained the boy after the shooting.
"I shot that b**** dead," the boy told Kovac, referring to his teacher Amy Zwerner. "I did it," he added. "I got my mom's gun last night."
Zwerner survived the shooting and spent several weeks in the hospital. She has undergone four surgeries since the shooting and, as of March 2023, was still having trouble using her hand.
The warrants also detail more information about what happened before the shooting. The documents state that Kovac was told by two students that the boy brought a gun to school. It said that Kovac searched the boy's bag with a school administrator while he was outside for recess.
They did not find anything.
Kovac said that after recess, she heard the gunshot and rushed to the classroom, where she restrained the boy until the police arrived.
The boy is not facing criminal charges due to his age. However, his mother, Deja Taylor, was charged with a felony count of endangering the welfare of a child and a misdemeanor count of reckless endangerment for failing to secure a firearm in her home. She is expected to plead guilty to those charges on August 15.
She previously pleaded guilty to a federal charge of lying on a form about her marijuana use when she purchased the gun that her son used in the shooting.