She confronted a 6-year-old seconds after he shot his teacher

Amy Kovac was approaching Abigail Zwerner’s first-grade classroom at Virginia’s Richneck Elementary School the moment a 6-year-old student pulled out a gun.

The reading specialist said in an interview with The Washington Post that she heard the blast from the hallway and thought: “Oh my god.” Suddenly, the door to Zwerner’s classroom burst open and panicked students ran out.

Zwerner, who had been shot through the hand and in her shoulder and was bleeding badly, followed.

Kovac, 54, said instinct kicked in. She went into the classroom. She said the boy looked proud.

“I did it,” Kovac said the boy told her. “I shot the b---- dead.”

The account is the first time Kovac has spoken publicly about the Jan. 6 tragedy in the Newport News school that generated nationwide attention and outrage after teachers alleged that officials ignored multiple warnings on the day of the shooting that the boy had a gun. The incident ultimately led to the ouster of Newport News’s superintendent and criminal charges for the six-year-old’s mother, and a special grand jury is investigating the actions of administrators and others before and during the incident.

Kovac said she found the six-year-old standing next to his first-grade desk. She recognized him - he had been her one-on-one reading student since the start of the year. His arms were crossed, and a handgun lay on the floor next to him.

Kovac said the moment was chilling, but she calmed her nerves, took the boy by the hand and led him to the front of the classroom, where she used a phone to call 911. She then sat at Zwerner’s desk holding the boy in her arms for three minutes until police arrived. It seemed like an eternity.

“While I was holding him, he told me he had gotten his mom’s gun the night before and put it in his backpack,” Kovac said. “He also told me he only had time to load one bullet.”

Zwerner later filed a $40 million lawsuit against school officials, and the boy’s mother, Deja Taylor, pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the case. She is expected to plead guilty to a second set of state charges next week.

Kovac said she has remained quiet until now because she wanted the focus to be on Zwerner, 26, who was gravely injured in the shooting and has gone through a number of surgeries. Kovac, a 30-year teaching veteran, said she did not take a day off after the tragedy because she wanted to support her fellow Richneck teachers and the school community. She is now working at a different school.

“I wanted all the attention and healing power to go to Abby because this should never happen to a teacher,” Kovac said.

Kovac said that she began working with the boy in September and that they had a good rapport. She said he had difficulties severe enough that the boy’s mother or father attended class with him every day, but just before the shooting, he seemed to be improving. The boy’s mother has said publicly he has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

The week of the shooting, the boy’s parents stopped attending school with him because of his progress, Kovac said. The boy was having trouble at the end of the day - just before his parents picked him up - on Tuesday and Wednesday that week, Kovac said.

On Wednesday, the boy smashed Zwerner’s phone, apparently upset over a scheduling change, according to text messages Zwerner sent to a friend. Kovac said the boy was suspended from school for a day over the incident.

When he returned to school on Friday, the day of the shooting, Kovac said she saw the boy for the first time around noon as students were coming back from lunch. Zwerner had said earlier in the day that the boy was having trouble. Kovac said the boy ran up to her and gave her a hug.

“He said, ‘I love you,’” Kovac said. “I said, ‘Are you having a good day? Make good choices.’”

The boy moved on to his classroom. A short time later, Kovac said two girls ran out and told her the boy had a gun in his backpack. Kovac said she went into the classroom and sat with the boy for a long time and twice asked him if he a gun. She said the boy replied he did not.

“I’m angry because people are picking on my friend,” Kovac recalled the boy saying.

Kovac said she left and told an assistant principal, Ebony Parker, about the reports of a gun. Parker and her attorney have not responded to requests for comment. Parker, whose actions became the focus of a law enforcement investigation that is now being run by a special grand jury in Newport News, resigned after the shooting.

Kovac said Zwerner texted her a short time later that they were outside at recess, and she believed the boy had taken something out of his backpack before leaving the classroom. Kovac said she went to Zwerner’s classroom and searched the boy’s backpack, but did not find the gun.

Kovac said that she again reached out to Parker and told her the boy might have taken the gun out to recess, but that Parker told her the boy had “little pockets,” implying he couldn’t have a gun. Kovac said she made one more report to Parker that she was concerned about the boy before the shooting occurred at 2 p.m., as school was winding down.

The boy brought the gun to school in his backpack, and it belonged to his mother, authorities have said. James Ellenson, an attorney for the boy’s family, said Taylor has reached a deal with the Newport News commonwealth’s attorney to plead guilty to one count of felony child neglect and should get a sentence of up to six months in jail. Her plea hearing is on Tuesday.

She is scheduled to be sentenced in October in the federal case related to the purchase of the gun used in the shooting. The Newport News prosecutor has said he does not intend to charge the boy with a crime because of his age.

“The child has had extreme emotional issues,” Ellenson said. “He’s still in therapy, We wish to thank all the professional people that work with him.”

Kovac said she is still grappling with the shooting, but she’s back in the classroom and will remain there.

“It’s been life-changing,” Kovac said of the shooting. “I feel sadness all around.”

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The Washington Post’s Jim Morrison contributed to this report.