Jury deliberates in civil trial stemming from Virginia elementary school shooting

Peter Dujardin, Daily Press on Nov 5, 2025

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NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A Newport News Circuit Court jury has begun deliberating in the case of a Richneck Elementary School teacher shot by a 6-year-old student in 2023.

The seven-member jury received the case about 3 p.m. after hearing about two hours of closing arguments from the attorneys.

Abby Zwerner, then 25, was shot sitting at a table during her first-grade reading class on Jan. 6, 2023 when her student pulled out a gun and fired a single round at her. The bullet went through her hand, with a fragment lodged in her chest.

In a trial that has lasted a week, Zwerner’s attorneys have contended that Richneck Assistant Principal Ebony Parker was grossly negligent that day. They assert she ignored several warnings that the boy had a gun in school.

“Every minute matters,” said an attorney for Zwerner, Kevin Biniazan, saying that Parker got first word of the possibility that a student brought a gun “onto the campus of Richneck Elementary School” more than an hour and 20 minutes before the shooting.

“The road signs were screaming at her, flashing at her, telling her what was going to happen if she did not act,” Biniazan said. “She blew past the signs.”

Attorneys for Parker, on the other hand, said the situation must be judged based on “real-time judgments, not hind-sight judgments” — about the very remote possibility that a six-year-old had brought a real gun to school that day.

“It was unforeseeable, it was unthinkable and it was unprecedented,” said Sandra Douglas, an attorney for Parker.

While Zwerner’s lawyers assert that Parker was responsible for failing to prevent the shooting, Parker’s attorneys cast blame on others — to include Zwerner herself, teacher and reading specialist Amy Kovac, fellow first-grade teacher Jennifer West and guidance counselor Rolonzo Rawles.

Biniazan asked for a verdict to Zwerner of $40 million.

He pointed out the fact that the bullet fragment is lodged two centimeters from Zwerner’s aorta. According to trial testimony, that means she can never get an MRI in the future because of the possibility that it could cause the metal to shift.

“She’ll have to say, ‘I can’t have that test … that I might need,’” Biniazan said.

Teaching was Zwerner’s chosen profession, and she says she no longer feels capable of shooting in light of being shot.

“Her choice to be what she wanted to be is changed and taken from her,” Biniazan said. That will affect her for the rest of her days.

The jury instructions say jurors should not render their verdict based on “sympathy” for either Zwerner or Parker, or concern about where Parker would get the money.

Jurors weren’t told, for example, that the Newport News School Board’s insurance pool, the Virginia Risk Sharing Association, has been covering Parker’s attorneys and is expected to pay any judgment against her.

“Anything less than full justice is an injustice,” he said.

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