4-Year-Old Fatally Shot By Woman Claiming To Teach 'Firearm Safety,' Authorities Say
www.huffpost.com
Breanna Gayle Devall Runions, 25, was charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the death of Evangaline Gunter in Tennessee.

Warning: Article has detailed accounts of the shooting

Breanna Gayle Devall Runions, 25, was charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the death of Evangaline Gunter.

The child’s parents, Adam and Josie Gunter, told ABC affiliate WATE that Evangaline had been in temporary custody at a home in Rockwood, which Runions shared with girlfriend Christina Daniels and another child, a 7-year-old girl.

Before the shooting, Evangaline and the older girl were being punished that morning by Runions for not waking up the women and for eating Daniels’ food without permission, according to the warrant and a statement from Russell Johnson, district attorney general for Tennessee’s 9th Judicial District. Runions struck both girls with a sandal before forcing them to stand in different corners of the women’s bedroom, authorities said the older girl told them.

After the shooting, the women drove Evangaline to a nearby Walmart location to meet an ambulance, Roane County Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Boduch told the Roane County News, and the vehicle transported the girl to a hospital where she was pronounced dead. Boduch could not immediately be reached by HuffPost.

  • @HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world
    85•2 years ago

    Look, I’m one of the first to say Americans are dangerously obsessed with firearms, but this wasn’t a firearms issue - it was straight up murder. This wasn’t an attempt to teach with any sort of responsibility or following any safety at all. If anyone tried to teach my kids firearm safety by sticking the barrel in their chest they would be decked.

    First rule - every firearm is loaded. Every. Fucking. Firearm. Is. Loaded.

    • Flying Squid
      20•2 years ago

      I agree with your points, but I also think that if firearms were more regulated, this woman may not have even gotten a gun in the first place. We don’t know her history, but if she did something like this, I wouldn’t be shocked if she didn’t have the cleanest of records.

    • @useralreadyexists@lemmy.world
      16•2 years ago

      Exactly. It was murder and its pissing me off the news is making it about firearm safety gone wrong. And the poor kids sound like they were abused in this foster care setting… This girl was shot point blank in the chest. Hope there is some justice.This poor child.

    • @yata@sh.itjust.works
      10•2 years ago

      In a civilised country this person would not have had access to a firearm, so it is most definitely a gun issue.