“That’s when he shot”: Parent says teacher Abby Zwerner tried to confiscate gun when 6-year-old shot at her

On Friday, January 6, Abby Zwerner, 25, was critically shot in the chest by her six-year-old student. Further investigation has revealed that the student pulled the trigger when Zwerner tried to confiscate the weapon.

The first-grade teacher, who is now in stable condition, was intentionally shot during an argument. Multiple witnesses, most of them young school children, have expressed their shock and fear after the incident. Brittaney Gregory, whose son was in the class when Abby Zwerner was shot, told the Washington Post:

"She was going to confiscate it — and that’s when he shot."

According to Police Chief Steve Drew, the six-year-old student was taken into custody. While Drew thinks that the horrifying shooting resulted from a fight whose cause remains undetermined, he is sure that it was "not an accidental shooting." It is also unclear how such a young child managed to gain access to a gun.

The victim, first-grade teacher Abby Zwerner, is being hailed as a hero for possibly saving the lives of the other young students by ordering them to leave the classroom immediately.

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Children are scared and in "shock" after Abby Zwerner's shooting

At around 2 pm on Friday, a 25-year-old first-grade teacher was shot by one of her own students during an alleged argument. Abby Zwerner, a teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, is presently undergoing treatment at Riverside Regional Medical Center, according to the Washington Post.

Parents of witnesses have told media outlets that the incident has left the children scarred and afraid. Brittaney Gregory, whose son was in the class when the shooting started, told the Washington Post that her son was "still in shock" and has had nightmares since that day.

Gregory further stated that she has been thinking about taking her son to a therapist:

"He normally sleeps in his own room but the night of the shooting he came into my room. He was talking in his sleep, saying we got to get out of here."

Zwerner, who had instructed students to immediately leave the room during the incident, is apparently her son's favorite teacher. She would often leave encouraging notes for him in his backpack. Remembering some of the notes, Brittaney Gregory said that the teacher used to write things like:

"I hope you had a great day. I want you to know your smile is contagious."

Fifth-grader Novah Jones, who was attending a class in another classroom, told CNN:

"We were doing math … an announcer came on, she was like, 'Lockdown, I repeat, lockdown,'I was scared … it was like my first lockdown and I didn’t know what to do, so I just hid under my desk like everybody was."

Novah Jones still gets “flashbacks” of the incident and said she found it difficult to sleep that night as she was afraid that the boy "still had the gun and he was going to come to my house."

Abby Zwerner's shooter is in police custody. However, professionals believe that there is very little chance of the six-year-old child getting prosecuted.

Andrew Block, an associate professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, told The Post that an adult back home could face misdemeanor charges if the weapon belongs to a family member, as under state law, guns must be secured from kids under the age of 14.