HARRIMAN, Tenn — Evangeline Gunter, also known as Evie, was a happy little girl, according to her parents.
"Even if the bully came up to her and bullied her, she would just come up to him and say, 'It's okay. I love you still.' She would hug him," said Josie Gunter, her mother. "That's how we need adults to be."
Police say 25-year-old Breanna Runions killed Evangeline. A warrant says Runions took out the gun magazine, pointed the gun at the little girl's chest and pulled the trigger, which ended up killing the little girl.
Runions told investigators she was demonstrating gun safety at the time. Evangeline's family says the memory of her smile will be what they miss the most.
"You could look at her and she would brighten anybody's day up," said Adam Gunter, her father. "She would she would smile at at you and just say, 'Hi.' And it was just the most beautiful smile. She, I just can't. I just can't really explain it ."
Her parents say she was named Evangeline after Ray's song, "Ma Belle Evangeline," from Disney's "The Princess and the Frog." They say she wanted to be a cheerleader.
"We were in the living room one day and my husband said, 'Honey, look at what I can do with Evie.' He picks her up and holds her in her legs like just at the kneecaps, and he just picks her up and right at about six feet in the air," said Josie Gunter. "I mean, I'm shocked because I'm worried it's my daughter in the air. And we had her watch the 'Bring It On' movies apparently. That's when Pearl and Evie would start playing doing cartwheels and all sorts of cheerleading moves, tumbles and everything."
On Tuesday, Sept. 5, on what would've been Evangeline's fifth birthday, her family held a funeral at the Kyker Funeral Home in Harriman.
Following the funeral service, there was a birthday party and vigil at the David Webb Riverfront Park.
District Attorney Russell Johnson said Breanna Gayle Devall Runions appeared in Roane County General Sessions Court by video from the Loudon County Jail on Tuesday, where she is currently being held.
She waived her right to a preliminary hearing. Judge Terry Stevens took the waiver and bound the case over to the next meeting of the Roane County Grand Jury, which will be on Oct. 16.