Abigail “Abby” Zwerner said this week that the image of her 6-year-old student aiming a gun at her during class has been forever etched in her mind.
“I will just never forget the look on his face that he gave me while he pointed the gun directly at me,” Zwerner told NBC reporter Savannah Guthrie on a “Today” show segment that aired Tuesday. “It’s changed me. It’s changed my life.”
But the 25-year-old Richneck Elementary School teacher is thankful she held up her left hand as the first-grader fired the gun.
Though the bullet — now partially fragmented — is still lodged in her upper chest, she believes her hand made a difference.
“It could have been fatal,” Zwerner said after Guthrie asked what doctors told her about her condition. “We believe that by the bullet going through the hand first, that it most likely saved my life.”
The comments — taped by NBC Monday morning — were Zwerner’s first public statements about the Jan. 6 shooting that drew worldwide attention to Newport News.
A small clip from the interview was aired Monday evening on NBC Nightly News, with fuller segments airing on the “Today” morning show Tuesday.
Zwerner has through her lawyer declined interview requests from other news organizations, including from the Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot.
In the “Today” segment, Zwerner wouldn’t speak in detail about her attorney’s assertions that a school administrator ignored credible concerns that the first grader had a gun on him that day.
“The morning it felt like just a regular school day,” the Williamsburg resident told Guthrie. “But I started hearing things, and things started happening that made my fear grow.”
It all culminated at about 2 p.m. when the boy — seated at his classroom desk — suddenly pulled a gun from a front hoodie pocket and fired at Zwerner as she sat at a nearby table less than 10 feet away.
Police have said the handgun — a Taurus 9mm — was legally purchased by the boy’s mother, and that he took it to school in his backpack.
In the shock after being shot, Zwerner said she remembers her other students “screaming” and “extremely frightened.”
“They knew they had to get out of there,” she said in the interview.
Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew has hailed Zwerner as a hero, saying she ensured the other 18 or so students had cleared the classroom before she sought help for herself.
Zwerner said what happened was “a blur,” but that after being shot, she quickly realized “that this is not a safe classroom anymore.”
“I just wanted to get my babies out of there,” Zwerner said. After the students got out, she said, she ran to a school office.
“I didn’t know at the time that my lung had collapsed,” she told Guthrie. “But I started not being able to breathe. Very raspy breaths, and my vision started going out.”
Zwerner said she then passed out, “and I thought I had died.”
She later learned the single gunshot went through her left hand, and ruptured “the middle bone,” as well as her thumb and index finger.
The bullet fragmented, entering her upper left chest, where it remains. “I think it will always be there,” she told Guthrie.
But “I’m still here,” Zwerner said, adding that “I believe I made it for a reason.”
At first, the wounds were difficult for her to look at, she said, but that’s eased a bit “now that they’ve scarred over.”
“But it’s still a reminder that, ‘Hey, this happened to you,'” Zwerner added. (She still wore a large bandage on her left hand for the “Today” interview, courtesy of a recent round of surgery).
The daughter of a schoolteacher, Zwerner told the “Today” show she long wanted to follow in her mother’s footsteps, writing about it in a journal as a young girl.
In high school, she said, she volunteered to work with children in an afterschool program. “And I was like, I really enjoy this,” Zwerner said.
The shooting has taught her to realize that “each day is special,” she said.
Zwerner said she has good days — when she gets out of bed and makes all her appointments — and “not-so-good days” when she doesn’t.
“I try to have a positive outlook on what’s happened and where my future is heading,” she told Guthrie.
Zwerner said she’s thankful for all the concern she’s gotten from all corners.
“It’s hard to comprehend how many people out there really are just supportive and caring,” she said in the interview. “There have been so many strangers reaching out.”
“Their messages, their cards, their support has not gone unnoticed,” Zwerner said. “And it’s been truly inspiring to keep pushing me to move forward in a positive way.”
Guthrie asked her what she would like to say to the other students in her class that day.
“I would first tell them that I love each and every one of them,” Zwerner replied. “I’m very grateful that they’re all alive. And they’re safe and they’re healthy. And I just miss them dearly.”
Her mother, Julie Zwerner, said she raced to Riverside Regional Medical Center when she first learned her daughter was shot.
“I broke a lot of speed-limit laws,” she quipped in the “Today” interview. “I didn’t know if she was alive or not.”
Two detectives and hospital security met her at the door. She said she “steeled myself” for bad news as they led her down a long hallway.
When a detective said Abigail “was going in for CAT scans,” the elder Zwerner said she was relieved.
But when she later learned her daughter was shot by a 6-year-old student, she couldn’t process it.
“Like what the — what, are you kidding me,” Julie Zwerner said in the interview. “You just can’t wrap your head around that. All of us being teachers in classrooms — rough schools, rough kids — (but) you’re never afraid like that.”
And from the hospital room, Abigail Zwerner referred to her mother as “Mommy.”
“I haven’t heard ‘Mommy’ in a long time,” Julie Zwerner said. “And it kind of broke my heart.”
Abigail’s twin sister, 25-year-old Hannah Zwerner, described her sister as “fragile” when she saw her in the hospital.
Though the sisters lived together before the shooting, they spend even more time together now. Hannah helps with appointments, cooking, cleaning up and even opening the toothpaste.
“Just being able to take care of her … I’m really, really grateful that I’m able to help her with that, and be there for moral support, too,” Hannah said in the “Today” interview.
“She will never give herself enough credit,” Hannah added. “She’s always downplaying everything. (But) I look up to her. She’s an inspiration.”
Abigail’s brother, Daniel Zwerner, 27, was stationed with the U.S. Army in Washington State but was recently moved closer to home after he said he wanted to be near his sister. “It’s hard to come up with words to describe how amazing my family has been,” she told Guthrie.
Zwerner’s attorney, Diane Toscano, has filed an intent to sue Newport News Public Schools, contending an administrator failed to act on clear warnings that the boy was armed that day.
“We have drafted the legal complaint, and it’s ready to file,” Toscano told the Daily Press and Virginian-Pilot, saying she plans to file the lawsuit in two weeks.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard Gwynn said the 6-year-old is too young to charge with a crime, but that charges against others are still being considered.
Peter Dujardin, 757-247-4749, pdujardin@dailypress.com
