Mother of 6-year-old child who shot his teacher indicted on felony and misdemeanor charges

A grand jury indicted the mother of a 6-year-old who shot his teacher at a Virginia elementary school in January.

Deja Taylor will face charges of felony child neglect and a misdemeanor count of recklessly leaving a loaded firearm so as to endanger a child, according to Howard Gwynn, the attorney for the Newport News Commonwealth.

The student used his mother's 9mm gun, according to the family, in the shooting at Richneck Elementary that severely injured teacher Abby Zwerner. The teacher filed a $40 million lawsuit against the school district after claiming that school officials had failed to take seriously three separate warnings about the student bringing a gun to school.

The family later said that the student had an "acute disability" and was usually under the supervision of at least one of his parents during the school day. On the day of the shooting, neither parent was at the school.

"We will regret our absence on this day for the rest of our lives," the family said in a previous statement.

Diana Toscano, the attorney for Zwerner, said that school officials needed to be held accountable in addition to the mother of the child.

"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," said Toscano.

"Our lawsuit makes clear that we believe the school division violated state law, and we are pursuing this in civil court," she added. "We will not allow school leaders to escape accountability for their role in this tragedy."

A prosecutor for Newport News said in March that the boy would not face charges over the shooting. The family had previously claimed that the gun was legally purchased and had been secured out of the reach of the child.

Zwerner is expected to make a full recovery.

If Taylor is convicted, she faces five years in prison for one of the charges.

Here's more about Taylor's indictment:

Mom of 6-year-old Richneck Elementary shooter indicted by grand jurywww.youtube.com

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