Overview
- Abby Zwerner was shot in January 2023 while seated at a reading table in her first-grade classroom at Richneck Elementary in Newport News.
- The civil verdict held Parker liable for failing to act on repeated warnings from school staff that the student had a firearm in his backpack.
- Defense counsel argued the shooting was not foreseeable and cautioned against hindsight bias, while Parker did not testify during the trial.
- Zwerner has undergone six surgeries, spent nearly two weeks hospitalized, has limited use of her left hand, and a bullet that grazed her heart remains in her chest.
- Parker faces a separate criminal trial this month on eight counts of aggravated child neglect, and the student's mother has been sentenced to nearly four years on child-neglect and federal weapons charges.