The case centered on what school officials knew before a first-grade teacher was shot.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A criminal case against former assistant principal Ebony Parker focused on a narrow question: whether missed warnings before a 6-year-old shot teacher Abby Zwerner could amount to felony child neglect.
Prosecutors said Parker was the school official with both knowledge of the threat and power to act. The defense said the shooting was not legally Parker’s crime and that others inside Richneck Elementary School also had chances to respond before the gun was fired.
The shooting happened Jan. 6, 2023, inside Zwerner’s first-grade classroom. Staff members had reported concerns that the child may have brought a gun to school. A backpack search did not find the weapon. Prosecutors said a counselor later asked to search the child but was denied because searches had to be done by an administrator or security officer.
Special prosecutor Josh Jenkins said Parker did not tell the principal about the reports and did not contact police. He told jurors that Parker stayed at her desk as the warnings came in. Jenkins said the school’s security officer was away at another school, leaving administrators as the people able to respond.
The defense pushed back hard. Attorney Curtis Rogers said employees who saw the child directly could have moved classmates away if they believed a gun was present. “What about these other people who had direct contact with this child?” Rogers said in court. He said prosecutors had to prove reckless disregard for human life, not just bad judgment.
Zwerner told the court the child had acted violently before the shooting and had broken her phone days earlier. On the day of the shooting, she noticed the boy’s oversized jacket and his hands in his pockets. She later was shot through the hand and chest while teaching at a reading table.
The shooting led to major consequences for the school system and for the people involved. Parker no longer works at Richneck. Zwerner resigned from the district and later won a $10 million civil verdict against Parker. The child’s mother received prison time in state and federal cases tied to child neglect and the gun.
The criminal case ended when a judge dismissed the eight felony counts against Parker after hearing the evidence. The ruling closed one legal path in a case that had already reshaped debate over school safety, staff warnings and accountability after violence involving very young children.
Author note: Last updated May 24, 2026.