The mother of a 6-year-old boy who seriously wounded his teacher with a gun in January will face charges in the shooting, a local prosecutor in Virginia said Monday.
A grand jury indicted Deja Taylor on charges of felony child neglect and a misdemeanor count of recklessly leaving a loaded firearm so as to endanger a child, Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard Gwynn said. The indictment comes a month after Gwynn said he would not seek charges against the student.
“Every criminal case is unique in its facts, and these facts support these charges, but our investigation into the shooting continues,” Gwynn said in a statement on Monday.
His office has also petitioned a circuit court to empanel a special grand jury to continue an investigation into potential security lapses that may have led to the shooting.
“If the Special Grand Jury determines that additional persons are criminally responsible under the law, it can return additional indictments,” Gwynn said.
A lawyer for Taylor did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday about the charges.
A lawyer for Abigail Zwerner, the wounded teacher, said Monday that charges against the student’s mother are welcome but more people need to be held accountable.
“There were failures in accountability at multiple levels that led to Abby being shot and almost killed. Today’s announcement addresses but one of those failures,” lawyer Diane Toscano said, adding, “Our lawsuit makes clear that we believe the school division violated state law, and we are pursuing this in civil court. We will not allow school leaders to escape accountability for their role in this tragedy.”
A week ago, Zwerner filed a $40 million lawsuit alleging administrators at Richneck Elementary School shrugged off multiple warnings from staff and students who believed the boy had a gun and posed an imminent threat on the day of the shooting on Jan. 6.
The student shot Zwerner with a 9 mm handgun while she sat at a reading table in their…
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