'I Thought I Had Died': VA Teacher Recounts Classroom Shooting

NEWPORT NEWS, VA — A Virginia first-grade teacher who police said was shot and seriously injured by a 6-year-old student in January shared harrowing details of the shooting in an exclusive interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie that aired on "Today" Tuesday morning.

“I just will never forget the look on his face that he gave me while he pointed the gun directly at me,” Abby Zwerner, who teaches at Richneck Elementary School, told Guthrie. “It’s changed me. It’s changed my life.”

Newport News police have accused the 6-year-old boy of shooting Zwerner inside the first-grade classroom where she was teaching 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.

Speaking with Guthrie, Zwerner described the scene in the classroom after she was shot in the chest and left hand, saying her students "were extremely frightened and screaming.”

With her vision fading and breathing labored, Zwerner got her students out of the classroom and went to the office, where she said she "just passed out."

"I thought I had died," Zwerner told Guthrie.

• Related: VA 6-Year-Old Accused Of Shooting Teacher Won't Face Charges: Report

Zwerner didn’t know it at the time, but her lung had collapsed. Doctors told her she likely only survived because she had put up her hands.

“The initial gunshot went through my left hand and ruptured the middle bone as well as the index finger and the thumb,” Zwerner added to Guthrie. “The gunshot then went into my chest up here, where it actually still remains. So I have the scar up here. And I still have some bullet fragments up here.”

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.

Zwerner was hospitalized for nearly two weeks and has had four surgeries over the course of her recovery. She told Guthrie that there are some days when she “can’t get up out of bed.”

“I’m not sure when the shock will ever go away because of just how surreal it was and the vivid memories I have of that day," Zwerner said. "I think about it daily. Sometimes I have nightmares."

Zwerner intends to sue the district, according to a legal notice filed by her attorney. Her lawyer, Diane Toscano, said in January that on the day of the shooting, concerned teachers and employees warned administrators three times that the boy had a gun on him and was threatening other students, but "the administration could not be bothered."

Before the shooting, Zwerner reportedly texted a loved one and told them the boy was armed and that school officials were failing to act, NBC News reported.

Newport News Superintendent of Schools George Parker told parents after the incident that a school official was notified about the weapon before the shooting. However, no gun was found when the child's backpack was searched.

Still, school administrators have been accused of downplaying the boy's behavior—which reportedly included the boy throwing furniture and other items in class and barricading the doors to a classroom to prevent anyone from leaving—and repeatedly ignoring Zwerner's requests for help, according to a Washington Post report.

Earlier this month, top Newport News prosecutor Howard Gwynn said his office will not criminally charge the boy because he wouldn’t understand the legal system and what a charge means.

The boy had fired his mother’s gun, which police said was legally purchased. An attorney for the boy’s family has said that the firearm was secured on a closet shelf and had a lock on it.

Gwynn has yet to decide if any adults will be charged.

Zwerner told Guthrie that while it's difficult for her to describe what justice would mean for her, if she could talk to her first-graders, she’d tell each one she loves them.

“I’m very grateful that they’re all alive,” she said. “And they’re safe, and they’re healthy. And I just miss them dearly.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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• School Downplayed 6-Year-Old's Behavior Before VA Shooting: Report
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