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.
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.
They do. Which is why you never point a gun at someone, let alone pull the trigger. It’s an entirely implausible excuse because what she did has nothing to do with teaching gun safety.
It may or may not have been an acccident but it happened because she was bullying the child. Whether proving that level of intent is enough to prove murder (in the US), I don’t know. But at the very least it is an extremely serious form of manslaughter so the difference is probably negligible in terms of conviction and sentencing (unless they can prove that it was an entirely deliberate and intentional murder).
There is no doubt that she was fundamentally responsible for that kids death. And I’m not holding my breath out that it was an “accident”. But people are absolutely that dumb. Either way… she should have the book thrown at her.
people do forget about the chambered round all the time.
all the time?? And y’all still are having debates on whether it might be time to maybe start looking at how you may act on the issue? America seems fucking crazy from the outside looking in…
Yup. All the time.
And yes, I’m all for gun control. The sad thing is these people vote.
And this is why the rule is every time you pick up/are handed a gun you check the chamber. Even if you just watched your buddy do it. Also, firearm safety for a four year old is “Stop, don’t touch, tell an adult.”
Yeah reaks of bullshit. I’d bet she was threatening the girl with what she thought was an unloaded gun, but surprise there is one in the chamber.
threatening the girl with what she thought was an unloaded gun
Fortunately for this monster and unfortunately for people who have the sense not to point guns at children, if she thought the gun was unloaded then she doesn’t have the premeditation needed to make the first degree murder charge stick.
That’s a bingo. Probably not murder cuz of intent but manslaughter 5-10 is appropriate here imo ianal
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.
You could say her gun safety knowledge was a little bit…
…Rusty…
Just another reason why not every idiot and his uncle should be allowed to own a firearm.
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.
You can very easily beat a four year old to death with very little force.
And I could hit anyone with my car!
But what happened in this case was, a child was killed with a gun.
The car argument doesn’t help because we should also be getting rid of cars.
You can kill the child with a necktie and use the excuse “I didn’t know it was too tight, I was showing her how to tie a necktie!”
Why would a 4 year old girl need to know how to tie a necktie? Similarly, why would a 4 year old girl need to know “gun safety” especially when it is clearly not gun safety because you pressed a firearm (all should be treated as loaded) against her chest? Even without the gun, she could have taught “knife safety”, “blunt weapon safety”.
I’m telling you this is not done out of ignorance, NOBODY is that ignorant about firearms except for children themselves, this was done intentionally. If you have firearms in the house, you should teach your children to respect them in their presence because of the power they hold, but you shouldn’t even keep them in a place where they can access them, let alone handling one in personal proximity of one.
Even if she didn’t intentionally kill the child, she intentionally held the gun up to the child’s chest which was without a doubt something she would have done to scar the child. You people are arguing “she should have never had a gun because then she couldn’t hurt that child!” when the gun was just a tool. The root of the problem is that she should have never had the children in her house to BEGIN with.
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.
Plenty of people have come up with ways to beat their kids without leaving bruises. Like using sandals, for example.
Chancleta never killed anyone, ya knob
I survived the chancla as a kid. Guns though…
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.
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.
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.
That… is a car issue in the rest of the world, considering some idiot who thinks it’s okay to do that has access to, and probably the privilege of operating such a machine.
Yeah… that would be a lifetime driving ban, alongside any other ramifications.
Yes, person would be banned from driving.
But we wouldn’t be banning cars, looking at stricter licenses, or improved regulation. We don’t review after ever drunk driver kills someone because its not the car, or the access to cars that is the problem.
Yeah, except the US isn’t really doing any of those things. You can still own guns here in the Netherlands, you just have to be a member of a sporting organisation and be licensed and stuff. We don’t have school shootings here.
Given the psychological effect of owning a gun, or having access to one has on a person, I honestly feel like we’re in the same mental health territory as any behavioral antagonist, like leaving an addictive substance around an addict. You take a gun and put everything it means in a person’s hands - the power, the mythology, the kind of baggage it comes with in this country - and it’s gonna have some kind of effect.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve witnessed, and am aware of many cases where drivers of certain kinds of cars - big, fast, whatever - do stupid, reckless, dangerous, even murderous things because of the feeling of power and control their vehicle gives them. It’s the psychology of the damn things that makes people crazy.
We have a phrase for it, oddly enough: “it’s like leaving a loaded gun on the table”
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.
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.
Second rule, don’t point that shit at anything you don’t want to destroy.
Very upsetting story. This young girl was failed by every adult in her life.
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Read the article. There was no firearms instructor.
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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?
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
These fucking backward degenerates should not be allowed to touch guns.
This is the world’s opinion of all Americans.
Immigration trends would beg to differ.
Or have kids.
The US is seriously self-destructing in so many ways.
Ironic…
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.
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?
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.
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”
