NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WRIC) — The mother of the 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher at a Newport News elementary school in January is now facing federal charges after a federal complaint claims she lied about her drug use when purchasing a gun last year.
On Jan. 6, a six-year-old boy made national headlines when he shot his first-grade teacher, Abby Zwerner, at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News.
Now the boy’s mother, Deja Taylor, 25, has been charged with federal firearms charges, according to 13News Now. Taylor was charged with being an unlawful user of a controlled substance in possession of a firearm and making a false statement during the purchase of a firearm.
13News Now reports that according to new court documents, Taylor claimed she was not “an unlawful user of, or addicted to” any illegal drug when she bought a handgun in 2022. Federal prosecutors are now saying she was “an unlawful user of marijuana.”
Police previously said Taylor purchased her gun legally.
In April, Taylor was criminally indicted by a grand jury on a charge of felony child neglect and a misdemeanor charge of endangering a child by reckless storage of a firearm.
