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A former Virginia assistant principal is on trial on felony child neglect charges after prosecutors say she ignored warnings that a 6-year-old student had a loaded gun before the child shot his teacher in 2023.

Jury selection began Monday in Newport News in the trial of Ebony Parker, the former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School. Parker, who has pleaded not guilty, faces eight felony child neglect charges tied to the shooting of first-grade teacher Abby Zwerner, according to The Associated Press.

Prosecutors allege several school employees warned Parker that the student might have a gun, but she failed to take action before the shooting happened, the outlet reported.

Parker’s defense has argued she is being unfairly blamed for broader failures that preceded the shooting.

ATTORNEY SAYS VIRGINIA SCHOOL MISSED WARNINGS BEFORE 6-YEAR-OLD SHOT TEACHER

Former Richneck Elementary School assistant principal Ebony Parker looks back in the courtroom during Abby Zwerner’s lawsuit in Newport News, Virginia, on Oct. 28, 2025. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot)

Prosecutors brought one count for each of the eight bullets loaded in the gun. If convicted, Parker could face up to five years in prison for each count, AP reported.

The shooting happened on Jan. 6, 2023, when authorities said the 6-year-old student shot Zwerner while she was teaching.

She was hospitalized for nearly two weeks and underwent six surgeries after the bullet narrowly missed her heart. She still has limited use of her left hand, according to the AP.

TEACHER SHOT BY 6-YEAR-OLD TELLS JURORS SHE NEVER PULLED CHILD FROM CLASS AS DEFENSE EXPERTS BACK OFFICIALS

Former Richneck Elementary School teacher Abby Zwerner looks back in the courtroom during her civil lawsuit trial in Newport News, Virginia, on Oct. 28, 2025. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot)

In November 2025, a jury awarded Zwerner $10 million in a civil lawsuit against Parker, alleging the former administrator dismissed concerns that the student may have brought a gun to school.

In a statement to Fox News Digital at the time, Zwerner’s legal team said the verdict marked a “major step forward in Abby’s long road of healing.”

During the earlier civil trial, Parker’s attorneys argued the shooting was “unforeseeable” and maintained she did not have a legal responsibility to protect Zwerner from the attack.

KENTUCKY TO CONSIDER BILL THAT WOULD HOLD PARENTS ACCOUNTABLE FOR CHILDREN’S GUN CRIMES

Students return to Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, on Jan. 30, 2023. (Billy Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot)

Zwerner is expected to testify in the criminal trial, AP reported.

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Authorities said the child got the gun from his mother’s purse after climbing onto a dresser. The student’s mother was previously sentenced to nearly four years in prison.

Fox News Digital’s Julia Bonavita, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky has faced a barrage of attacks from President Trump heading into Tuesday’s primary against former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, who has the president’s endorsement.

But Massie doesn’t appear to be sweating it, even after several of Mr. Trump’s perceived adversaries have suffered primary defeats stemming from the president’s ire — most recently GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.

In the days leading up to the contest in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District, Mr. Trump has labeled Massie “the worst congressman in the history of our country” and has called him “a disloyal, ungracious, and sanctimonious FOOL.” He has also threatened to primary other congressional Republicans who have campaigned with Massie, who has voted against several of the president’s legislative priorities, opposed the war with Iran and defied him in pushing for the release of the Epstein files.

“He knows I’m tough to beat,” Massie told CBS News in an interview Monday in his hometown of Vanceburg, Kentucky. “He’s literally losing sleep over this race, because he’s in with both feet. I think their polling shows what our polling shows, which is there’s a better than half chance that we’re going to win this race.”

Massie later said, “I’m going to win.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth campaigned with Gallrein earlier Monday in a hotel ballroom across the street from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport, using a 23-minute appearance to accuse Massie of “constant obstruction.” Hegseth said he was there in his personal capacity, and after stopping earlier Monday at the Fort Campbell Army Base, though the visit marked a break from military officials’ longstanding practice of avoiding partisan politics.

Massie told CBS News that Hegseth’s appearance underscores how concerned the president and his allies are about Tuesday’s outcome.

“How much personal time do you have when you’re supposed to be monitoring a war in Iran?” Massie said. “You don’t send the Secretary of War to Kentucky during a war if you think your candidate is up 10 points. That’s what you do when you realize your whole campaign is imploding.”

But Massie said millions in spending by pro-Israel interest groups is causing more disruption in the race than the president. In a typical year, Massie said he would have won the primary with 80% of the vote. He estimated Mr. Trump’s endorsement of Gallrein lowered his support to 60%, and spending from the pro-Israel lobby further eroded it.

“I think what would have been a 60-40 race is now a 50-50 race,” Massie said, citing Gallrein’s support from AIPAC, the Republican Jewish Coalition and GOP megadonors such as Miriam Adelson.

The congressman called the race, which has become the most expensive House primary in history, “a referendum on whether the Israeli lobby can buy a seat in Congress.” He accused the interest groups of trying to “intimidate the entire Republican Party into having zero dissension on foreign policy toward Israel.”

Massie is one of the few Republicans in Congress who has opposed the war with Iran and has voted with Democrats to rein in Mr. Trump’s authority to carry out further military action without congressional authorization. He has also voted against symbolic resolutions backing Israel, as well as a resolution condemning antisemitism that he argued promoted censorship.

Asked whether he’s antisemitic, Massie responded “hell no.”

Massie warned that it’s a “big disfavor” to Jewish Americans to equate anti-Zionism or criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war in Gaza with antisemitism.

He defended his stance on Israel, saying his policy has “always been no country is special and no country deserves my constituents’ taxpayer dollars.”

“I have never voted for foreign aid to Egypt, to Syria, to Israel or to Ukraine,” he said. “But the ones in Israel, since they’re the biggest recipients of it, that makes them a little bit mad.”

Massie said he doesn’t support aid to Israel because “we’ve got debt” and it’s a “one-way” arrangement.

“At least with NATO, there’s the promise of a reciprocal arrangement,” he argued, also accusing Israel of dragging the U.S. into wars.

A Washington man was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison after admitting to a pair of decades-old cold-case killings which investigators linked him to using a piece of gum.

Mitchell Gaff, 74, was sentenced last week after he previously pleaded guilty to the murders of 21-year-old Susan Vesey and 42-year-old Judith “Judy” Weaver in Everett, according to FOX 13.

Investigators linked Gaff to the 1984 murder of Weaver after detectives with the Everett Police Department visited his home while claiming to be researchers working within the gum industry and inviting him to try a free sample, USA Today reported.

Gaff reportedly obliged, providing the undercover detectives with a sample that was subsequently sent through the federal database CODIS, where investigators ultimately linked him to Weaver’s murder.

DAUGHTERS’ RELENTLESS SEARCH SHATTERS ‘OVERDOSE’ CLAIM, LEADS TO ARREST IN MOM’S 1992 MURDER

Mitchell Gaff pleaded guilty to the rapes and cold case murders of Judith Weaver and Susan Vesey in Everett, Wash., according to the Everett Police Department. (KCPQ)

He was arrested in May 2024 and was later charged with Vesey’s killing while behind bars, with investigators revealing she had been murdered inside her apartment the day after her 21st birthday on July 12, 1980, officials said.

Speaking in court on Wednesday, Gaff offered an apology to the families of both victims seated in the courtroom, while pointing to drugs and alcohol as contributing factors to his history of violence.

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Susan Vesey was murdered inside her home in Everett, Wash., on July 12, 1980, according to authorities. (Everett Police Department)

“I am sorry, not because I was caught, but the consequences,” Gaff said, according to NBC News. “No one did anything to deserve me coming into their lives.”

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The court also heard from Jacqueline O’Brien, a former law enforcement officer who survived a violent attack by Gaff inside her Everett home’s garage in 1979.

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Authorities found Judy Weaver’s body inside her home on Rucker Avenue in Everett, Washington, after first responders were called to a fire on June 2, 1984. (Everett Police Department)

“I knew he was going to kill me,” O’Brien said, FOX 13 reported.

O’Brien managed to escape the attack and was pivotal in helping authorities identify Gaff, who was arrested several times in the years after and spent time behind bars for the rapes of two teenage sisters in 1984.

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“My nightmare occurred 47 years ago, but it seems like yesterday,” O’Brien added.

Vesey’s son, Joshua Vesey, told the court he was just 3 months old and inside the apartment when his mother was killed by Gaff, FOX 13 reported.

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“What the defendant took from me and my sister was not just a life, it was a mother’s unconditional love,” Joshua Vesey told the court, according to the outlet. “At any point he could have stopped the confusion, the suspicion and the pain that spread through my family.”

DECADES-OLD COLD CASE BREAKTHROUGH LEADS TO ARREST IN EXECUTION-STYLE KILLINGS OF MARRIED COUPLE BEFORE CHILD

Leon Gregory, Weaver’s brother, also emphasized how the case haunted his family for years as they grappled with the possibility of never receiving closure.

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“Your Honor, as we all know, it’s been a long 42 years,” Gregory said, according to FOX 13. “My parents, brother, two other sisters, passed on years ago, never knowing who killed Judy.”

Before determining Gaff’s fate, the judge pointed to his history of violence and attempts to cover up the crimes throughout the years as a determining factor in denying the defense’s request that he receive the minimum sentence.

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“The defendant’s history consists of sexually motivated, extremely violent crimes against women,” the judge said, FOX 13 reported. “The appropriate sentence has a minimum is the number of years that the families had to wait.”

The Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.