Category: Business

Newly released bodycam footage captured the aftermath of a six-year-old boy shooting his school teacher in class.

Richneck Elementary School teacher Abby Zwerner was shot in the chest by a first-grade pupil in Newport News, Virginia, in January 2023.

Bodycam footage from Officer Brian Torrez shows the six-year-old, who was identified only as J.T., verbally lashing out after the incident and threatening to fight cops.

The youngster can be heard asking the officers: “Both y’all want a f***ing piece of me, b***h?”

In the clip, educator Amy Kovac can be seen telling the boy to ‘stop’, after which he issued two expletives at her.

The 9mm Tarus handgun that J.T. used in the shocking incident can be seen on the floor just feet away from the boy.

Talking through a radio, another officer says: “We have the shooter.”

Kovac can then be heard telling the police that she told the assistant principal about a ‘threat’ earlier on in the day before confirming to one of the officers that the boy is just six-years-old.

“He has been on a modified schedule. His mother is to pick him up at 2:30. This is his first week without his mother coming to school with him,” Kovac says.

The young boy, who is being held on Kovac’s lap, continues to speak out saying that he ‘doesn’t care’ if he goes to jail and admitting he ‘stole’ the gun from his mother.

“I don’t care if you call back up, I don’t care if I go to jail, b***h,” he says.

The incident left Zwerner with broken bones and a punctured lung.

Zwerner later filed a $40 million lawsuit against the school’s assistant principal Ebony Parker, claiming she failed to address prior warnings from her and other teachers about the boy’s violent behaviour.

She was ordered to pay Zwerner $10 million in a gross negligence lawsuit.

Parker previously had criminal charges lodged against her over the shooting but they were dismissed in court.

Judge Rebecca Robinson dismissed the case, saying that Parker did not break the law.

She said: “If [Parker’s actions] are meant to amount to a crime, the legislature will need to codify it.

“Therefore, I do grant the defense motion to strike in full on all counts, all eight counts of felony child abuse and endangerment.”

Prior to the case being dismissed, Zwerner had testified about the shooting in court, saying that she had warned Parker about the boy’s ‘violent mood’ on the day of the incident.

Recalling the shooting, which left her with permanent injuries, Zwerner said: “I saw the student looking at me. I looked over. A gun was pointed right at me. He was holding a gun, the student. It was pointed right at me. And then I was shot.”

Zwerner was shot in the hand and the chest.

In a statment issued via her family, Zwerner has since said she has moved on from the shooting.

They said: “We are happy that this tragic event is behind Abby.

“As devastating as this shooting was, may it bring change to the education system in our country so that violent children are not placed in a general education classroom, and I hope that administrators are held accountable if this were to happen again for violent behaviour.”

The boy’s mother pleaded guilty to felony child neglect and was sentenced to two years in prison.

We may now be in the Pumpkin Spiced latte season, but the weather has certainly been saying otherwise.

Despite autumn being firmly upon us, the continuous warm temperatures throughout the UK are still baffling people online.

Flurries of posts on the likes of X and TikTok have been shared questioning how in some areas temperatures have reached high teens or even low 20s in recent days.

Temperatures throughout September remained around 20C, which followed in this year’s trend of the above-average forecasts in the UK.

Posts from Brits have included one which read: “Is no one concerned that its still 20c in October? Like why am i still able to leave the house without a jacket of any kind? Why has it been like this since March?”

Another meanwhile posted to X: “Alarming how warm it is in the UK in October. I mean it helps when we don’t have to turn heating on with the current gas prices though.”

Last month became the joint-fourth warmest September on record, which followed a blazing hot summer, with the UK basking in the second warmest June and second warmest July ever.

October has also so far shown no sign of letting up, with the dry and mild conditions certainly not going unnoticed.

The Met Office has told LADbible exactly why the start of October has felt warmer than normal, mainly due to air mass, but that it’s not actually quite as dramatic as we think and the dry conditions aren’t going to last.

Warmer air mass is causing impact

Stephen Dixon, Met Office spokesperson explained: “October has started warmer than average for the time of year, but not in a historically significant way.

“We’ve reached into the low 20s Celsius today while the average daily maximum temperature for this month is 13.1C.

“That being said, the natural variability of the UK climate means that we can indeed see temperatures into the 20s, even in October.

“The temperatures at the moment are largely down to a milder air mass over southern parts of the UK, helping to keep temperatures above average for the time of year.”

It comes amid concern over the El Niño weather event which is a warmer phase of global weather patterns that can drive more extreme weather alongside climate change.

This is set to cause drought in some areas, and could put the UK at a greater risk of a wet, stormy autumn.

Drought pressures will persist in some areas even if wetter conditions arrive, officials said, with climate change meaning the country is seeing an increase in both drought and flooding, which can happen simultaneously.

Asked about its impact on current weather, Stephen Dixon explained: “El Niño is one of a number of large-scale atmospheric drivers that influence weather patterns in UK and Europe.

“However, other atmospheric and oceanic factors will continue to play an important role in determining conditions over the coming months.

“It could lead to more wet and stormier conditions later in autumn and early winter, while it could also bring drier, cooler and more settled conditions later in the winter.

“However, no single weather event in the UK can be attributed to El Niño alone and much will depend on its interaction with other climate drivers.”

Conditions set to change

Despite the recent warmer conditions, there is set to be a change throughout this week.

The comfortable above-average temperatures will give way to cooler conditions spreading from the north, the Met Office has confirmed.

Wet and blustery weather will move across some northern parts of the UK and introduce chillier air later in the week.

In its outlook for the week, the forecaster explained: “Generally cloudy with spells of drizzly showers, although there may be some brighter spells in the afternoon, particularly in the south.

“A brisk breeze, particularly on coasts and hills, easing through the day. Feeling mild. Wednesday and Thursday will be bright with sunny spells and a cool, autumnal breeze.

“Showers most likely over mountains on Wednesday. A return to mild, unsettled weather on Friday.”

However looking ahead, the conditions are expected to change. From the middle of October, a series of ‘low pressure systems’ will run across the North Atlantic bringing bands of rain and strong winds.

“Whilst brief cooler interludes are possible, temperatures are likely to be a little above average in many areas for the period as a whole,” the Met Office added.

President Donald Trump has approved the execution of a former US Army major by firing squad, the Pentagon has announced.

Spokesperson Sean Parnell said that the commander-in-chief has given the green light for Nidal Malik Hasan to meet his grisly fate, nearly two decades after the devastating Fort Hood shooting.

It’s a controversial and uncommon method of execution in the US – and those who have watched one unfold have conflicting opinions on the humaneness of the process.

Hasan, 56, is one of four men on the military’s death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas – and Parnell said ‘judgement day has finally come’ for him.

On Tuesday (6 October), the Pentagon spokesperson shared a social media post explaining that both Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Trump have rubber stamped his pending execution.

Hasan’s scheduled death on 3 December will mark the first military execution since April 1961.

He was given the ultimate punishment in August 2013 by a military jury after he was found guilty of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder.

The former US Army psychiatrist, from Virginia, opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun at the Texas military base, Fort Hood, in November 2009. It left 13 soldiers dead and another 30 injured.

Hasan was left wheelchair-bound as he was partially paralysed due to a shootout with police who battled to subdue him during the mass shooting – and he is now set to soon meet a similar fate to his victims.

If the military execution goes ahead, his last moments will likely be extremely unpleasant.

The procedure is expected to be similar to those used by US states who put prisoners to death with a firing squad, such as Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah.

It may be comparable to the execution of Brad Sigmon in South Carolina in March last year, which saw three officials open fire at him while aiming for a red bullseye target on his chest.

Witnesses described how they saw the double murderer strapped to a chair, which had a basin underneath it to catch blood, before a hood was then placed over his head.

A curtain that had concealed the firing squad was then opened, before shots were fired simultaneously at Sigmon.

A reporter for the Associated Press described observing his chest rise and fall several times after the bullets penetrated his body. It took 3 minutes for him to die after the first shot was fired.

How death by firing squad unfolded for Sigmon

Brutally, the bullets that were used are designed to break apart on impact and inflict maximum damage on the condemned inmate. Those who observe such executions are often given ear plugs to protect their ears.

As detailed by FOX Carolina News in wake of Sigmon’s death, he was strapped down to a metal chair that is bolted to the floor in the execution chamber at the Broad River Correctional Institution in South Carolina.

Those responsible for putting him to death were Department of Corrections employees who, interestingly, had volunteered for the macabre job.

The publication reported that there was a ‘portal’ in the wall of the execution chamber, which is where rifles that were each loaded with live ammunition were positioned, before the triggers were pulled from around 15ft (4.6m) away.

After the warden recited the execution order, bullets rained down on Sigmon, before a doctor pronounced him dead minutes later.

Although his method is perhaps more definitive that other methods such as the lethal injection, as demonstrated during Christa Pike’s botched execution last week, it apparently isn’t any easier to watch.

What witnesses have described

Reporters who saw Ronnie Lee Gardner be put to death by a firing squad in Utah in June 2010 gave chilling accounts of what happened in the moments after the trigger was pulled.

The killer explicitly wished to meet his fate this way and famously told the Deseret News in 1996: “I like the firing squad. It’s so much easier… and there’s no mistakes.”

He was pronounced dead approximately two minutes after a five-man firing squad unloaded at him from 25 feet (8m) away.

KSL5TV former reporter Sandra Yi explained that Gardner’s head was ‘restrained’ by officials during his execution, ensuring he could not budge.

“There was a strap across his forehead, so he couldn’t move his head,” she said press at the time, as per the Associated Press. “But I could see him moving his eyes…and it looked almost like he could see us through the window, even though he couldn’t. When he was shot, some of us I think weren’t sure if he had passed away because we could see movement.

“He had his fist clenched and we can see his elbow move up and down and his thumb and forefingers moving rubbing against each other.”

Others shared similar accounts, such as Pat Reavy from Deseret News, who recalled how Gardner ‘kept moving’ after the round of shots were fired at him.

The general consensus was that the firing squad got the job done efficiently, as KTVX-TV reporter Marcos Ortiz said: “What caught my attention was that it was so sudden, so quick. Boom, boom! Just like that.”

Sherly Worsely, reporting for KSL NewsRadio, concurred and described it as being ‘over pretty quickly’.

“It was cleaner than I expected and it was fast,” she said. “But he moved, he moved a little bit. And to some degree that bothers me and to some degree that mirrors the last few weeks of his life…because he was fighting to stay alive the last few weeks of his life, legally, and that seemed to carry on the last 60 to 120 seconds.”

In response to the news of Hasan’s execution date being set, Death Penalty Action – an organisation which opposes capital punishment – said: “There ​is nothing Donald Trump loves more than the power to kill.”