Overview
- Zwerner told jurors she thought she had died after the 2023 shooting, describing a bullet that went through her left hand into her chest and remains too dangerous to remove.
- Medical and personal testimony detailed six surgeries, partial loss of hand function, and diagnoses of PTSD, anxiety and depression, with examples of daily tasks she still struggles to perform.
- Multiple witnesses said they warned Parker the boy might have a gun, including a reading specialist who was rebuffed after a backpack check, a counselor who was told to wait to search, and an HR official who said Parker acknowledged an alert about 90 minutes before the shot.
- An education expert testified Parker had responsibility and opportunities to confiscate the bag, secure and search the student, and contact police, while the defense argued the incident was not foreseeable and cautioned against hindsight bias.
- Parker is the lone civil defendant after others were dismissed, a criminal trial on eight felony child neglect counts is set for next month, and any civil judgment would likely be covered by the VRSA insurance pool; police say the gun came from the boy’s mother, who has been sentenced to prison.