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. Advertisement

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.