Opening statements begin in Ebony Parker trial over 2023 teacher shooting

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Opening statements began Tuesday in the trial of Ebony Parker, a former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, who is charged in connection with the January 2023 shooting of first-grade teacher Abby Zwerner. Prosecutors said the case centers on what Parker did after multiple staff members believed a 6-year-old student had a gun in his backpack, and how the school responded—or failed to respond—before the attack.

Ebony Parker is charged with eight counts of felony child neglect related to the Jan. 2023 shooting at the Virginia elementary school. The case follows the classroom attack in which Zwerner was wounded, prosecutors say, while the student was in her classroom setting. The trial’s opening phase laid out competing arguments about whether Parker’s actions showed reckless disregard and whether other staff members had opportunities to intervene.

Prosecutors described a pattern of repeated warnings that the child had a gun. Special prosecutor Josh Jenkins told the jury that several school employees told Parker they believed the student had a gun, but that Parker responded in a way prosecutors characterized as inaction.

Jenkins said Parker did not follow steps he argued crisis procedures required in light of the warnings. Jenkins told jurors that Parker did not remove the child from the classroom, separate him from other students, or direct staff to call police. He also argued that Parker did not even leave her office desk, describing the warnings as “warning after warning after warning” and saying Parker “did nothing.”

Before the shooting, Jenkins said, school employees told Parker they believed the child had a gun in his backpack and that Parker was told the child’s mother would be arriving soon to pick him up. Jenkins said the jury would hear that a school counselor sought permission to search the child, but that Parker denied the request because searches could be conducted only by an administrator or a security officer.

The prosecution said the security officer was away at another school, leaving Parker and the principal with authority to act. Jenkins said the principal knew nothing because Parker did not tell her about the threat, and he told jurors that only one person had both the authority and the knowledge of the ongoing crisis.

Parker’s attorney, Curtis Rogers, used opening statements to challenge the prosecution’s allocation of responsibility. Rogers argued that if teachers believed a gun was present, they should have taken action themselves, including separating students. Rogers said each teacher in the classroom had authority to move classmates, and he argued that responsibility should not rest solely on Parker.

Rogers told the jury that the prosecution must prove Parker’s actions showed reckless disregard for human life. He placed blame, in part, on others he said had direct contact with the child before the shooting, arguing that the prosecution’s focus on Parker did not fully account for what other staff members did.

Zwerner was the first witness called in the trial. She testified about the student’s behavior before the shooting, describing how he had slammed a phone to the ground a few days earlier and how she viewed him as being in a “violent” mood on the day of the shooting, according to the testimony described during opening coverage.

During recess on the playground, Zwerner said the student wore an oversized jacket with both of his hands in his pockets for the entire recess period. She testified that she sent a text message to a reading specialist about what she observed, and that the specialist had been tipped off earlier by students about the gun and then reported it to Parker.

After recess, Zwerner testified that the student continued to wear the jacket in the classroom and that she was shot while she was at a reading table. She spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and required six surgeries, the coverage said, and prosecutors described the injury as including a bullet that narrowly missed her heart and remains in her chest.

Prosecutors said the eight felony counts Parker faces include one for each of the bullets fired into the classroom. Each count, prosecutors said, carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison if convicted.

The shooting sent shock waves through the military shipbuilding community of Newport News and the country, with many focused on how a child so young obtained access to a gun. In addition to the criminal case against Parker, a jury in a civil trial last November awarded Zwerner $10 million, and prosecutors said Parker was the only defendant in that case.

Separately, prosecutors said the student’s mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for felony child neglect and federal weapons charges, the coverage reported.