A grand jury in Virginia has indicted the mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher on charges of child neglect and failure to secure her gun in the family’s home, a prosecutor said Monday.
A Newport News grand jury charged the boy’s 25-year-old mother with child neglect and a felony charge of endangering a child by reckless storage of a firearm, Commonwealth attorney Howard Gwynn said in a press release.
The Associated Press is not naming the mother to protect her son’s identity.
The boy shot and killed teacher Abby Zwerner in her classroom at Richneck Elementary School on Jan. 6. Police say the boy’s mother bought the gun legally. Her attorney, James Ellenson, has said the gun was mounted on a top shelf in her closet and had a trigger.
Ellenson said Monday his client plans to turn himself in later this week. He did not comment on the charges, which were first reported by the Daily Press.
Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, where the shooting took place. Several parents have filed a lawsuit against the school for failing to protect their children
The decision to charge the boy’s mother is the latest development following the shooting in the shipbuilding town of about 185,000 near the Chesapeake Bay.
“Each criminal case is unique in its facts, and these facts support these allegations, but our investigation into the shooting continues,” Gwynn said.
Gwynn said his office has asked the court to convene a special grand jury to continue its investigation into any security issues that may have contributed to the shooting.
“The safety and security of Newport News students is of the utmost importance. The Special Grand Jury will consider whether additional charges against additional individuals are warranted by the facts and the law,” Gwynn said.
Virginia’s Child Neglect Act says that any parent, guardian, or other person responsible for the care of a child “whose willful act or omission in the care of such child was so abusive, wanton, and culpable as to demonstrate reckless contempt for human life’. ‘ is guilty of a class 6 misdemeanor. The charge carries a prison sentence of up to five years.
The misdemeanor charge says it violates Virginia law to “recklessly leave a loaded, unsecured firearm in a manner that endangers the life or limb of a child under the age of fourteen.” The charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison.
Abigail Zwerner, 25, was shot in the hand and chest in January at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia. She can be seen above in an interview with TODAY
Police Chief Steve Drew has repeatedly characterized the shooting as “intentional.” He said there was no warning and no struggle before the child pointed the gun at Zwerner and fired a shot, hitting her in the hand and chest.
Zwerner, 25, chased her students out of the classroom before being rushed to hospital, where she spent nearly two weeks.
Ellenson told The Associated Press in January that he understood the gun was in the woman’s closet on a shelf more than six feet high and had a trigger lock that required a key.
The family said in the aftermath of the shooting that the boy has an “acute disability” and was covered by a care plan “where his mother or father went to school with him and accompanied him to class every day.” The week of the shooting was the first time a parent was not in his class, the family said.
Despite her terror, Abby says she’s excited to be teaching again
The family said in the days following the shooting that the child was placed under hospital care and “received the treatment he needs.”
The shooting also unleashed an outpouring of criticism against school administrators.
Days after the shooting, school officials revealed that Richneck Elementary administrators suspected the child may have had a gun before the shooting happened. But they didn’t find it, despite searching his backpack.
At a subsequent school board meeting, parents and teachers berated the administrators for what they called a misplaced emphasis on attendance over the safety of children and staff. They said students who assaulted classmates and staff often had little consequence, while Zwerner’s shooting could have been prevented had it not been for a toxic environment in which teachers’ concerns were ignored.
In a lawsuit filed last week seeking $40 million in damages, Zwerner’s lawyers accused school officials of gross negligence and disregarding multiple warnings from teachers and other school employees on the day of the shooting that the boy was armed and in a violent mood.
In the lawsuit, Zwerner’s lawyers said all defendants knew the boy had “a history of random violence” at school and at home, including an episode the year before in which he “strangled and strangled” his kindergarten teacher.
The Newport News school board fired the district superintendent, while Richneck’s deputy principal resigned from the school department. The principal of the elementary school is still employed by the district, but no longer holds that position.
Richneck also installed metal detectors before reopening on January 30, three full weeks after the shooting took place.