NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Christian star Steven Curtis Chapman’s 5-year-old daughter was killed in a tragic accident Wednesday at the family’s home in Williamson County, The Associated Press reports.
The Grammy-winning singer’s youngest daughter, Maria Sue, was hit by a Toyota Land Cruiser driven by her teenage brother as she stood in the family’s driveway. The tragedy happened in front of several family members, AP reports.
She died later at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
“It looks like a tragic accident,” Laura McPherson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol, told AP.
Maria Sue was one of three daughters adopted from China by Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth, who married in 1984. The couple also has three biological children — Emily Elizabeth, Caleb Stevenson and Will Franklin.
Chapman and his wife have long been vocal advocates for adoption, starting the charity foundation Shaohannah’s Hope, which offers grants to qualifying families to help defray the cost of adopting, at home and abroad.
They have also participated in missionary work at Chinese orphanages in 2006 and 2007, according to the singer’s Web site.
“After our first trip to China, my wife and I knew our lives were changing — our eyes and hearts were opening to how big God really is, and we have wanted to experience more of that,” he says on the Web site.
“We’ve really wondered whether or not we should just go to China and stay there. But I don’t think so. I believe God is saying, ‘I want you to go, get your heart broken, your eyes opened, and then take this story back to the church in America and around the world.'”
