A grand jury sitting in Newport News on Monday charged the boy’s 25-year-old mother with felony child neglect and a misdemeanor charge of endangering a child by reckless storage of a firearm.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — 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 failing to secure her handgun in the family's home, a prosecutor said Monday.
The decision to charge the boy's mother is the latest development to cascade from the shooting in this shipbuilding city of about 185,000 people near the Chesapeake Bay. “The safety and security of Newport News students is of utmost importance. The Special Grand Jury will investigate to determine whether additional charges against additional persons are justified by the facts and the law,” Gwynn said.
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 one round, striking her in the hand and chest. The family said in the wake of the shooting that the boy has an “acute disability” and was under a care plan “that included his mother or father attending school with him and accompanying him to class every day.” The week of the shooting was the first when a parent was not in class with him, the family said.
In a lawsuit filed last week seeking $40 million in damages, Zwerner's attorneys accused school officials of gross negligence and of ignoring multiple warnings from teachers and other school employees the day of the shooting that the boy was armed and in a “violent mood.”
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