A Virginia circuit judge dismissed all criminal charges against Ebony Parker, the former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School, on Thursday, ruling that her alleged failure to act on warnings that a 6‑year‑old student had a gun did not constitute a crime.
The ruling came on the fourth day of Parker’s trial in Newport News, where she faced eight felony counts of child neglect. Each count, prosecutors said, corresponded to one of the bullets in the handgun the boy brought into teacher Abby Zwerner’s classroom on Jan. 6, 2023, and could have carried a maximum prison sentence of five years.
“The court is of the legal opinion that this is not a crime,” Circuit Judge Rebecca Robinson said from the bench, granting a defense motion to dismiss.
Bell, in a statement, said his office “had hoped the community would have had the opportunity to weigh in through the full judicial process.” He added, “Nevertheless, the Court has now concluded the matter as it deemed appropriate under the law. Our office remains committed to pursuing justice with integrity, transparency, and fairness.”
The Jan. 6, 2023, shooting at Richneck Elementary in Newport News wounded Zwerner, who was hospitalized for two weeks. The boy, who was 6 at the time, was not charged because of his age. A subsequent investigation found that school administrators had been warned multiple times that day that the child had a gun, but no one intervened. Parker was indicted by a grand jury in 2024, and her trial began earlier this week.