6-Year-Old Boy 'Really Liked' Teacher He's Accused Of Shooting: Mother

NEWPORT NEWS, VA — The mother of a 6-year-old boy who police said shot his first-grade teacher at a Newport News elementary school claimed responsibility for the shooting in an interview with "Good Morning America" on Wednesday while also revealing her son's ADHD diagnosis.

Deja Taylor, 25, who was charged with felony child neglect and failing to secure the handgun her son used to shoot Richneck Elementary School teacher Abigail Zwerner, described her son as a "great" but "very energetic" kid, according to the interview.

"I am, as a parent, obviously willing to take responsibility for him because he can't take responsibility" for himself, she said in the interview.

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Police have accused Taylor's son of shooting Zwerner inside a classroom on Jan. 6. Police said the boy took his mother's 9mm handgun to school, pulled it from his backpack, and used it to shoot Zwerner.

Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew has repeatedly characterized the shooting as "intentional," saying the boy aimed at Zwerner and fired one round, striking her in the hand and chest. The shot resulted in severe injuries, including a lung collapse.

Taylor's attorney, James Ellenson, said the mother believed her legally-purchased gun was secured on a top shelf in her closet and had a trigger lock. It is unclear how the boy got the gun and was able to take it to school on the day of the shooting.

Zwerner has filed a $40 million lawsuit alleging school administrators ignored multiple warnings that the boy had a history of random violence and posed a threat to teachers and other students, according to the lawsuit obtained by NBC News and information shared by her lawyers in a television interview.

In a statement released shortly after the shooting, the boy's family said their son suffered from an acute disability and was under a care plan at the school, including his mother or father attending school with him and accompanying him to class every day.

According to the family, the week of the shooting was the first that a parent was not in class with him.

During the "Good Morning America" interview, Taylor said her son "really liked" Zwerner. She also said the boy told her "he felt like he was being ignored" the week of the shooting.

"You know, most children, when they are trying to talk to you, and if you easily just brush them off, or you ask them to sit down, or you're dealing with something else and you ask them to go and sit down, at 6 (years old) you in your mind would believe that, 'Somebody's not listening to me,' and you have a tantrum," Taylor said.

Taylor's attorney said school officials knew of the boy's ADHD diagnosis and had prematurely placed him in first grade.

"If they believed all of these behaviors to be true, then they should not have allowed him" to advance to a higher level, Ellenson said. "They should've put him back into kindergarten, possibly even pre-K, but at the minimum to kindergarten."

In response to Zwerner's lawsuit, Newport News school officials argued that a court doesn't have jurisdiction and filed a motion to dismiss the case. In the motion, school officials said the possibility of violence in the classroom is a risk all teachers take.

"While in an ideal world, young children would not pose any danger to others, including their teachers, this is sadly not reality," the motion stated.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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