A horrifying incident unfolded in a North Carolina neighborhood when a man opened fire on children playing basketball near his home.
A six-year-old girl and her father were wounded, and her mother was grazed by a bullet.
The shooter, 24-year-old Robert Louis Singletary, was apprehended by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Tampa, Florida, on April 20.
Singletary reportedly became enraged on Tuesday evening when children were playing basketball in the street close to his residence. He began yelling and threatening the children when their ball rolled into his yard and they went to retrieve it.
The father of one of the children confronted Singletary, prompting him to retreat into his house, only to come out with a gun and begin shooting indiscriminately into the street.
Eyewitnesses claim that Singletary chased the frightened children and adults, continuing to fire his weapon until he ran out of ammunition.
Kinsley White, a six-year-old girl, was struck in the cheek by a bullet fragment, while her father, William James White, sustained a gunshot wound to the back. Ashley Hildebrand, Kinsley’s mother, was also hit but the bullet did not wound her seriously.
Following the shooting, Singletary fled the scene and was apprehended two days later, approximately 600 miles away from his home. Arrest records indicate that he is currently being held on a fugitive warrant without bond.
The Gaston County Police Department confirmed Singletary’s arrest and said that the investigation into the shooting is ongoing. He faces charges of four counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and one count of gun possession by a felon.
The Sheriff’s office reported that the young girl was discharged from the hospital after spending a night under observation. However, her father remains in serious condition. The family was not participating in the basketball game; they were simply grilling outside their home while Kinsley rode her bike nearby.
Singletary has a prior criminal record, including an arrest in December for attacking his girlfriend with a sledgehammer. He was charged with first-degree kidnapping, communicating threats, and assault with a deadly weapon. He was released on a $250,000 bond in December 2022, just four months before the recent shooting.
This incident marks the fourth shooting in less than a week in the US involving apparent misunderstandings. Other recent shootings include a teenager shot after ringing the wrong doorbell, a woman killed when a car entered the wrong driveway, and two cheerleaders shot after approaching an incorrect parked vehicle.
