True Crime 757: The shooting of Abby Zwerner at Richneck Elementary as civil, criminal trials begin
It was a gunshot heard quite literally around the world: On the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2023, a 6-year-old student at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News took out a gun he stole from his mother and shot his first grade teacher, Abby Zwerner. Within hours, the news had been picked up by U.S. news outlets, in addition to European and Asian sources. Zwerner, then a 25-year-old graduate of James Madison University, became a household name. Over the next two-plus years, Zwerner's legal team would successfully argue that she has the right to pursue a $40 million lawsuit against the Newport News School Division, alleging that school leaders — a group that was eventually whittled down to former Assistant Principal Ebony Parker, the lone defendant — ignored multiple warnings that the child had a gun and intended to use it. On this episode of True Crime 757, local defense attorney Eric Korslund lends his legal expertise to our conversation about the trials of Taylor and Parker, with the civil suit set to start on Monday, Oct. 27.