Teacher who was shot by 6-year-old student at school testifies she thought she had died

A former Virginia teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student in her classroom in 2023 testified Thursday that she thought she had died that day.

Abby Zwerner testified in her $40 million lawsuit filed against a former assistant principal who is accused of ignoring multiple warnings that the student had a gun.

Zwerner was shot in the hand and chest in January 2023 as she sat at a reading table in her first-grade classroom at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News. Zwerner spent nearly two weeks in the hospital , required six surgeries and does not have the full use of her left hand. A bullet narrowly missed her heart and remains in her chest.

“I thought I had died. I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in heaven,” Zwerner testified. "But then it all got black. And so, I