2y ago

4-Year-Old Fatally Shot By Woman Who Was Teaching Her 'Firearm Safety,' Authorities Say

www.huffpost.com

4-Year-Old Fatally Shot By Woman Claiming To Teach 'Firearm Safety,' Authorities Say

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.

233 comments

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.
- 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?
- 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.
  
  That's a dangerous road that leads to huge health problems. If I'd do that I'd be morbidly obese within a year.
- Moral of the story: Don't have children just to have them.
  
  They were fostering the children, I thought. But yes.
Runions pressed the barrel of the gun against the child’s chest and pulled the trigger, police said she told them.
Daniels told police that she saw Runions take out the gun, remove its magazine and put it to Evangaline’s chest, but she turned away and didn’t see her pull the trigger, according to the warrant.
This was a murder.
- yeah it's 100% just a murder. probably she thinks by saying it's an "accident" she can either skate or get a manslaughter conviction instead of murder.
  
  people do forget about the chambered round all the time.
  But. I ain't holding my breath, either.
- Yes, what the hell kind of gun safety lesson was that? Here is exactly what NOT to ever do.
  
  "Here kid, don't do exactly this or you'll Alec Baldwin someone."
  Tries to "teach gun safety" by breaking all 4 major gun safety rules at once
  Yeah, not buying her story lol.
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.
- That is a firearms issue.
  Untrained, irresponsible people are getting access to guns.
  
  I fully agree irresponsible people are getting access, but this goes beyond firearms and training. There is irresponsible ownership and use, and then there is putting a firearm in the chest of a child, right after removing a loaded mag and pulling the trigger. Using my car analogy - there is irresponsible not wearing a seat belt, and then there is putting a kid on the roof and going off roading. First one - training, laziness, responsibility and access issue, second one is straight up murder.
  
  I think the point they are trying to make is that in this situation, the perpetrator would have said she tripped and stabbed her with a knife if she didn't have access to a gun. It's not a gun issue, this person just genuinely wanted to murder a child that got on her nerves.
  
  That's not what this was. This wasn't a lack of training, this wasn't irresponsible behavior, this goes way beyond neglect or ignorance. This was murder, full on. Not an accident.
  
  All the training in the world wouldn't have stopped this. They wanted that kid dead.
- Not a firearm issue? Wtf killed her?
  No wonder we'll never solve this issue. Idiots
  
  This is like saying its a car issue because I tried to teach a 4 year old road safety by speeding at them and slamming on the brakes. Its not the car thats the issue.
- 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.
- 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.
- In a civilised country this person would not have had access to a firearm, so it is most definitely a gun issue.
- Second rule, don't point that shit at anything you don't want to destroy.
temporary custody
Why is it next to impossible for people to get approved to adopt, but any asshole can become a foster parent? I think you need more in-depth screenings to adopt from pet rescues. If the US is going to force pregnancy on people, then they really need to get a handle on the foster system. Because it's always about "protecting the children," right?
- Went through the foster care/guardianship in Oregon for us. These kinda stories make me Soo mad. I have a lot of First hand experience with the Oregon foster system.. I am adopted myself. I Was in 97 to a single woman in her late 50s (I loved my mom, make no mistake she was great and may she RIP) but it was super easy for her to adopt me.. like really easy...
  THAT SAID... My husband and I also had to get custody of my nephew from my sister. It was a terrible experience and I almost warn people who are interested in being a foster because of our experience..
  My husband and I went through hell and back in Oregon to be become foster parents just so we could take our nephew out of foster care. As we went through the process, We got accused of only wanting him for money by a foster care certifier. (mind you the amount they pay is pennies a month for a kid) God that woman was outrageous and we had to complain to my nephews case worker, that her co-worker was sabotaging our nephews chance at permanent placement and almost backed out because she made us look so bad for asking questions and curious about how to afford this child. Very relevant question to ask, wouldn't you say? (This foster certifier was very Catholic made it very know to me and my husband. She got upset with us when we told her we are not religious and had to tell us about all the Catholic churches and schools he should be in.... and at the time, we were also not married. (Gasp I know!!)
  So she put in her report, that she was suspicious of us and our reasons for being interested in this child for suspicious reasons. This was my nephew!! I was there when he was born and everyday since till he went to foster care. My mom died.in 2020 and my sister couldn't parent without her support.. I wanted him home.. it was that simple!! But this worker made It a fucking nightmare and I was sooooo angry.
  Thanks to his case worker appealing for us and showing the judge the errors the certifier was claiming we finally got the foster parent certification and are now full fledged guardians of him and have yearly check ins.. it was a headache and almost impossible with how long it took...
  So when I see stories like this and someone who got be a foster who clearly shouldn't be, INFURIATINES ME!!! we had to work so hard and show everything (not that it was a problem for us, we expected it) but to see those who didn't get held to the same standards and a kid gets hurt through negligence pisses me off!!
  
  It's almost like a terribly under funded government system with horrible pay that can be soul crushing doesn't attract the best possible employees. I'm sure they know that woman is a horrible zealot who they'd love to replace. There's no one that wants that job though.
  Social services in America are embarrassing. Like it's strait up shameful how bad our systems that are required for a functional society are ran. Reagan successfully demonized government spending as "wasteful" on anything a perfect American nuclear family wouldn't need. Now everything is shit and the answer to needing government assistance for anything is good luck.
- They'll just put the group homes on the coal mine's property. Boom, two birds with one stone. Like the ol "company store" days almost.
- I just watched the "Three Slaps" episode of Atlanta and it was tense and terrifying.
Just another reason why not every idiot and his uncle should be allowed to own a firearm.
- The key thing here is that most people who think themselves to be smart and that it won't impact them... Tend to be idiots as well.
  The problem is idiots and crazy don't know they are.
  
  Dunning Kruger effect - they're too stupid to know that they're stupid.
- I mean, even without the firearm this was going to go south. You did read this, right? The kids were struck with sandals because they did not wake fully grown adults up and "ate their food without permission".
  
  It does sound like an abusive situation that the kids needed to be removed from.
  However, it wasn't the sandal that killed the child.
  
  Well if they beat the children, they would be full of bruises. Which would notify authorities and they would have been taken away again.
  Now, that chance has passed.
  
  I survived the chancla as a kid. Guns though...
For people who, like me, saw the gap between "teaching firearm safety" and first degree murder, the method outlined in the article for teaching firearm safety seemed to involve putting the barrel of the gun to the child's chest and pulling the trigger. The witness, the other child living in the home, says that the killer did pull the magazine before the 'safety lesson' though. Technically this might make premeditation difficult to prove and could hinder a first degree murder conviction but I also think that a jury will figure out some way to make this monster go away forever regardless of what the letter of the law says.
- I mean, IANAL but I think it's pretty easy to argue that anyone with the bare minimum knowledge of firearms and intent to teach safety would know that:
  You presume the gun is always loaded.
  You check the chamber, even after pulling the mag. And then still treat the gun as loaded.
  You don't start the lesson by putting the barrel of the gun to anyone's chest and pulling the trigger. Because you don't do that when treating a gun as if its loaded.
  With those three points, which again, I would argue constitutes the bare minimum to anyone attempting to teach firearm safety, a skilled prosecutor could argue there was some sort of intent. She would have known those things, yet didn't do those things, and so behaved in a way that indicates other intent. Easier to argue manslaughter, of course, but it's just so egregious I can see why they'd push for 1st degree.
  
  The standard for first degree murder is higher than the mens rea required for most crime. It's not just an intent to kill, it's a premeditated plan to kill.
  I think they pushed for first degree because most people see murdering a child as the most bad murder you can do and first degree murder as the most bad murder charge you can convict someone of. To do any less would invite political attacks for being "soft on crime" but I think it's a lot to try to argue that this person must have intended to kill this child because no one could possibly be that stupid. Any time I've ever thought "no one could possibly be that stupid and cruel" I've been unpleasantly surprised.
  
  Doesn't matter to me if you're anal but what did that have to do with anything?
- Wtf...i knew it was going to be bad, but immediately ignoring one of the primary rules of firearm safety (always treat a firearm as if it is loaded) was not what I expected.
  I figured it was going to be an accidental discharge while unloading.
There is a serious issue with child abuse here.
But, if you can correctly guess the country where this occurred before reading the locale in the article, then it's a telling point about how famous the idiots+guns connection is in exactly one affluent country while still being a tangent.
- Was the gun bit, not obvious enough?
- Just by reading some of the names I can guess which country it is.
- I'm guessing Texas?
  
  They haven't gotten their way yet, I'd guess the country is USA USA USA
- I'm unfortunately very familiar with this town. It's an industrial wasteland with no real job market and drugs are rampant.
  This story is unfortunately not at all surprising.
  
  Don't blame it on the town. It's not a small town problem. It's a USA problem.
- Yeah, we're all aware. Thanks for your service it means so much on every single post like this.
This is reason #9,278 why conservatives should not be allowed near children.
- And reason #53759742269743 why guns should be extremely restricted.
- Wtf does this article have to do with conservatives? Liberals and swing voters own guns too, you know.
  
  The difference is most liberals don't want dumb people to have guns. This person might be a liberal, but if other liberals had their way, the girl would still be alive.
  
  Perhaps liberals would be less likely to show off firearms, much less teach how to use them, to a four years old.
  
  Liberals have guns, but liberals aren't stupid enough to point a gun at a child. It's extremely obvious to everyone except conservatives that this woman is a conservative.
Very upsetting story. This young girl was failed by every adult in her life.
Do not begrudge getting older...so few get the opportunity.
4 year old wiped off this world because a 25 year old woman shot her in an attempt to intimidate and scare her. there was no firearms safety class being taught; if my mother wanted to "show me something" it was always to rub my nose in the proverbial piss of some mistake i had made in her eyes. That is what i see here for this "gun class"
Every gun owner thinks they're a responsible gun owner.
- Can't argue, she is responsible for this.
  
  😅
- Kind of like every dog owner. Except that most dogs have redeeming value.
- You didn't even read the article, taking a gun and putting it to a child's chest and pulling the trigger is not practicing gun safety, this child was deliberately killed.
  
  She took out the magazine, so it's quite arguable that she's just a fucking idiot and did not intent to kill the child. That being the case would make this a "responsible gun owner" discussion.
  
  You didn’t even read the article
  Yes I did. It did not change my opinion. Every gun owner thinks they're a responsible gun owner. Too few are right.
These fucking backward degenerates should not be allowed to touch guns.
- Or have kids.
- This is the world’s opinion of all Americans.
  
  Immigration trends would beg to differ.
You wanna teach firearm safety to a four year old, keep your guns safely locked up and practice using a hose pipe. If that murderer beams you with the hose, don't let them have your gloc because they gunna Bury you.
- "I know it's only been a few months since you stopped using sippy cups, but I think you're ready for this 9mm Glock."
The 7-year-old girl told authorities that she saw Runions shoot Evangaline and said the bullet struck a glass bottle, sending shards her way, according to the warrant.
It's even crueler for the child that witnessed the murder. At least the girl who was killed doesn't have to continue to suffer. The 7-year-old who had to see it is old enough to remember that trauma for fucking forever. She's going to need so much therapy to overcome this incident and our system won't provide it for free.
Fuck anyone who brings out a gun around children.
what a piece of shit headline. the girl was being punished or the lady was trying to scare her and the gun went off. the 7 year old said that they were being punished for waking someone up and eating food?! this is probably a foster parent situation. I sure as fuck hope that 7 year old is placed in a new home!
showing someone gun safety is the killers excuse, thats not what happened here at all.
AND FUCKING 4 YEAR OLDS CANT EVEN TIE THEIR SHOES! WHY WOULD YOU GIVE THEM GUN SAFETY?
FUCKING HORRIBLE
- Yup, sounds like she was trying to scare the girl. She was mad at the kids and wacking them before this. Jackass didn't even check to see if there was a round in the chamber not that they should be aiming guns at people and pulling the trigger.
  I wonder if there were powder burns and a muzzle imprint on the kid, that would show if the gun was pressed against her. I wouldn't trust anything they say at this point anyway.
  
  The other methhead and the 7yo both say they saw the muzzle against her chest so it seems likely
Everyone is a responsible gun owner until they aren’t.
- "this never happened before!"
  
  They'll take away guns from women before they'll restrict access to the main school shooter demographic.
- And then someone is dead.
This was a murder, plain and simple. She put a gun up to the girl's chest and pulled the trigger.
The gun safety lesson here being "see what happens when two meth heads with children in the house are allowed to have a gun"...
- Which a certain political party and a certain organization will defend under any circumstance.
Was gonna come in here to say "The first rule of gun safety is your gun is always loaded, even if you cleared it and the safety is on, so barrels don't get pointed at anything you don't want to die".
This still applies here, but the situation had nothing to do with teaching a kid. Now that kid is dead. So fucked...
- WTF
  That is like teaching fire safety by pouring gasoline on someone and waving a lit match.
  
  There is no lesson. Just a sociopath murdering a child.
  I hate headlines like this that use quotes that diminish how serious it is. How can a journalist,in good faith, write what they did about the incident, things like putting the gun against her chest, and then still have a headline like that. You just know a bunch of people are just going to read the headline and think it's another accident when this had far more malice.
It is too easy to get a driver's license in the US and sure is hell way too easy to get a gun. Some people can't be trusted with a toothbrush.
According to a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation arrest warrant obtained by HuffPost, 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. Daniels told police that she saw Runions take out the gun, remove its magazine and put it to Evangaline’s chest, but she turned away and didn’t see her pull the trigger, according to the warrant. The 7-year-old girl told authorities that she saw Runions shoot Evangaline and said the bullet struck a glass bottle, sending shards her way, according to the warrant.
wtf
As a parent, EVERY kid feels like your kid. This made me cry.
The US is seriously self-destructing in so many ways.
- Read the article. There was no firearms instructor.
I learned gun safety at 6, on a bb gun, killed my first deer at 10. Trying to teach a 4 year old who probably isnt even sentient at this point on a real loaded firearm is the stupidest thing you can do. Firearms safety isnt a hard thing to teach, it should be taught in schools along with the home imo. Shooting sports used to be a big part of the american school system.
- for my kids @ 4 I taught them if you see a gun, don't touch it...go get an adult. @ 7 started BB gun and had to show muzzle / Triger discipline and recite the rules of firearm safety EVERY time we went out to shoot it.
- What was that about four-year-olds not being sentient?
Ironic...
Many of the comments in this thread are sickening. A child was blatantly murdered and the headline is bullshit, there is no mention of firearm safety training whatsoever. She literally pressed a firearm against a child's chest and pulled the trigger after she abused them for not doing something young children should have to do.
If you can somehow screech out "muh conservatives shouldn't have gunz!" then you didn't even read this shit or you are dickbrained. Nothing about this woman speaks conservative and some of it is contrary to that claim if anything.
- How about “Only licensed, trained, competent owners should be allowed to have guns?”
  She obviously was none of the 3
  
  I'd have no problem with that whatsoever. That still doesn't break my point away that she should have never had the children in the first place. She struck children who were not even hers, she wanted an excuse to kill is all.
  However, you can narrow it down to licensed and competent. You aren't getting a license in anything without training.
  If it makes you feel better, she cannot legally own a firearm now that she is a convicted felon. Don't you even dare think that is going to stop her from being able to kill again. Felons can't have firearms, but remember that firearms are not the only ranged weapons out there.
- Nothing about this woman speaks conservative and some of it is contrary to that claim if anything.
  Haha what. We taking bets? White abusive woman from Tennessee playing with guns...
  Also, "no mention of firearm safety"? Straight from the article:
  According to a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation arrest warrant obtained by HuffPost, 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.”
  Of course it's a bullshit excuse and this lady is batshit crazy. It's almost like it should be harder for the average dumbass to get a gun..
  
  Remember, prejudices are bad unless theyre against a whole race of ppl!
  I'll put $20 on conservative please
  
  White abusive woman from Tennessee playing with guns doesn't have anything politically backing it whatsoever. Way to feed into stereotypes by the way, as if liberals don't exist in the deep south or anything.
  I guarantee you that she did not say that because that is the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard. She said that to POLICE but it isn't what happened.
- Maybe.
  But it does tie into the notion that mentally ill people shouldn't be allowed to own guns.
  
  Cases like this make it seem that way, but my issue is "define mentally ill."
  
  She would've found some other way to kill the child, like suffocation.
- Conservatives are the reason she was allowed to have guns.
  
  Will you liberals shut the fuck up about the fucking conservatives for a second? Not everything is about mUh CoNsErVaTiVeS and politics. Who is to say she legally obtained the firearm huh? The article doesn't even say what kind of firearm it is, for all we know it could be a 3d printed ghost gun?
  I swear every bit of news I see, liberals use it as an excuse to bitch about conservatives. A child died by first degree murder from a caretaker because of the awful CPS that we have, guns are not the focal point here buddy.
- You know, for a while now, I've just been ignoring the absence of a downvote button on this website because it never seemed that important to use one. But now I have to ask; WHY IS THERE NO DOWNVOTE BUTTON?

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