Police: Woman says she shot, killed 4-year-old during gun safety lesson

A Tennessee woman is under arrest for shooting and killing a 4-year-old girl on Sunday while she said she was demonstrating gun safety, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

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Breanna Runions, 25, was charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse after she allegedly shot Evangeline Gunter, according to a statement by the TBI.

According to a statement, the shooting happened at a home in Rockwood.

Arrest warrants from the Roane County Sheriff’s Office said Runions told investigators she was trying to demonstrate gun safety when she pressed the gun to the 4-year-old’s chest and pulled the trigger, WBIR-TV reported.

Runions’ girlfriend and a 7-year-old who was in the home at the time of the shooting said that Runions had punished the children because they didn’t wake the two adults and for eating food that belonged to Runions’ girlfriend, officials said.

Runions’s girlfriend said Runions struck both children with a sandal and placed them in separate corners of the adults’ bedroom.

The arrest warrant said Runions brought out the gun and removed the magazine while the two children were in the adults’ bedroom. She then called the 4-year-old over to her and shot her in the chest, according to a TBI arrest warrant obtained by HuffPost.

Runions and her girlfriend rushed the girl to the hospital, meeting EMS at a Walmart parking lot where Gunter was then transported to Roane Medical Center. The child was pronounced dead, Roane County Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Boduch told Roane County News.

A service for Gunter will be held on Sept. 5, on what would have been her fifth birthday.