4-Year-Old Fatally Shot By Woman Who Was Teaching Her 'Firearm Safety,' Authorities Say
4-Year-Old Fatally Shot By Woman Who Was Teaching Her 'Firearm Safety,' Authorities Say
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.
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were being punished that morning by Runions for not waking up the women and for eating Daniels’ food without permission
Any time a young child is in trouble for eating someone's food, it is a huge red flag.
Any time a child is responsible for an adult's schedule, it is a huge red flag.
This article is about child abuse that lead to murder.
Tragic
The headline really fucking buried the lede. This is not a story about a firearms instructor accidentally shooting someone. This is a story about extreme child abuse.
What kind of legitimate firearm instructor would allow a 4 year old to hold a gun. This was always about Child Abuse.
Well, the difference would be "incompetent fire arm instructor" versus "person trying to cover up murdering a child"
Or point a gun at anyone's chest and pull the trigger, knowing it was loaded or not.
Just pointing the gun at anything you don’t want to kill is off the table for anyone with any gun safety knowledge.
That's not what happened.
Runions told police that she had taken a 9 mm handgun out of its case, removed the magazine and called Evangaline over to “show her firearm safety.”
Runions pressed the barrel of the gun against the child’s chest and pulled the trigger, police said she told them.
The irony of calling this "firearm safety" is absurd. It's being charged as first degree murder because nobody points a gun at someone's chest and pulls the trigger unless they intend to kill.
In the south? Plenty.
Isn't the forth birthday the day children get their first firearm gifted in the US?
Third. You just have to wait until they're old enough that you don't have to worry about them putting the ammunition in their mouth and choking.
Remember that story recently with the teenage girl who ran away from her abusive parents after 16 years to save her (also abused) siblings? One of the things she talked about was getting punished for the same
Did you miss the part where it described the actual abuse? Like, you don't need to do much guessing to find out they were being abused.
Runions struck both girls with a sandal before forcing them to stand in different corners of the women’s bedroom
Why was she
in temporary custody at a home in Rockwood
what does that even mean?? It makes it sound like she was being held there without consent, but she's a child and no kidnapping is mentioned, so who put here there? What relation was the killer to the child? Where were her parents?
The full article mentions the child had been placed there by a "court decision" so it sounds like the parents may have temporarily lost custody.
I appreciate the info, thanks.
That raises so many other questions though, none will help make this case any less horrible, but it just feels like so many people failed this poor child in her short life (potentially her parents, but also whoever placed her in this situation and failed to ensure her safety), but probably only one will pay (as she should, of course, in case that wasn't clear)..
If you want a deeper look into just how child protection systems can fail so egregiously, have a watch of The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. I work in child protection myself and it was eye-opening.
The whole article describes a strange situation. The "adults" where mad at the kids for not waking them and eating their food. Like what is even going on over here?
Child Abuse. Child abuse is going on over there.
Shitty people who are criminally bad at regulating their emotions.
Eh... It could simply be that they were keeping her for the week while the parents weren't available or something, no need to panic...
A child was murdered and I'm asking for clarification.
Who the fuck is panicking? Why even respond that way, how is it helpful?Do I really need to quote your reply I was replying to or you're able to scroll up a bit?
Lol, the post is literally just asking questions, questions which I know many here want to be answered. No indication of panicking was ever in there.
"makes it sound like she was being held without her consent"
That's the first thing you think about when seeing "temporary custody"? Having custody of someone means you're the person who has the responsibility of taking care of them. OP even used the word kidnapping in their post.
Heck, a babysitter has temporary custody of the kids she's taking care of, why would OP not think about that first?
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No matter how broke we were my mom always said that if I was hungry I should eat. She firmly believed nobody could be wrong for eating something if they were hungry and I carry that with me today.
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That's a dangerous road that leads to huge health problems. If I'd do that I'd be morbidly obese within a year.
I think most studies have found that restricting children's food causes them to fail to develop the ability to regulate their own eating and leads to obesity in later life. It's generally considered better to avoid bringing unhealthy food into the home, but allow children to eat what what is available when they are hungry.
Same with the poor souls that were forced to clean their plates. Bad eating habits for everyone!
Yeah, it's definitely a different situation for developing children.
That's definitely not the context or the spirit of it though lol
Moral of the story: Don't have children just to have them.
They were fostering the children, I thought. But yes.