Mother of 6-year-old boy accused of shooting and seriously injuring her first-grade teacher earlier this year in Virginia faces two new federal royaltiesaccording to court documents filed Monday.
Deja Taylor is charged with unlawfully using a controlled substance while in possession of a firearm and making a false statement when purchasing a firearm. The new charges follow felony charges filed in April accusing Taylor of negligence and child endangerment.
Taylor “knowingly made a false and fictitious written statement to Winfree Firearms,” a gun store in Grafton, Va., from which she purchased a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, according to court documents filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The documents also allege that Taylor falsely claimed on Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives application forms that she had not used marijuana despite illegally using the drug.
Abby Zwerner, a 25-year-old teacher from Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Va., was shot in the hand and chest by a student on Jan. 6 while sitting at a reading table in her classroom. She has spent nearly two weeks in hospital and has had four surgeries since the shooting.
While the the boy has not been charged In connection with the shooting, a grand jury returned an indictment charging her mother with “felony child neglect and misdemeanor by recklessly leaving a loaded firearm in such a manner as to endanger a child”, said said Newport News Commonwealth prosecutor Howard Gwynn in April. Taylor will return to court in August to face those charges, CBS affiliate WTVR reported.
The boy used his mother’s weaponsaid police, which had been purchased legally.
Family members said the weapon was secure. They also noted that the 6-year-old boy suffered from an acute disability.
Zwerner in April filed a $40 million lawsuit trialaccusing school officials of gross negligence for allegedly ignoring multiple warnings that the boy had a gun and was in a “violent mood” on the day of the shooting.
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