Judge releases body-camera footage after Richneck shooting

A Newport News judge ordered the release of nearly three minutes of body-camera footage showing officers entering a Richneck Elementary School classroom after a six-year-old shot teacher Abby Zwerner in January 2023. The recording, made public October 6, 2026, shows reading specialist Amy Kovac holding the child as officers arrive; the child’s face is blurred in the released video. In the footage, officers recover a firearm from the classroom while Kovac tells them the child had a weapon. Asked about the gun, the boy says he took it from his mother. The recording also captures him repeatedly cursing at Kovac and the officers and responding defiantly to their questions. The child was not criminally prosecuted because of his age, according to reporting on Virginia law. By the time officers reached the classroom, Zwerner had left it and collapsed in the school office. The bullet had passed through her hand and entered her chest. The footage shows Kovac staying with the child as police enter and remove him from the room. It documents the immediate response but does not, by itself, establish the full circumstances leading up to the shooting.