Police are searching for a man who shot at his 6-year-old neighbor and her parents when her basketball rolled onto his yard.
Around 7.44pm on Tuesday, police and emergency medical services in Gaston County, North Carolina responded to reports of a shooting in a suburban neighborhood
They arrived to find a father and daughter both suffering from gunshot wounds.
Kinsley White, 6, was rushed to the hospital after a bullet grazed her. Her father, William White, was then critically wounded when he confronted the man who shot at his daughter.
Police quickly identified the suspected as Robert Louis Singletary, 24, of Gastonia. Detectives secured arrest warrants for four counts of first-degree attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.
Law enforcement have not confirmed what sparked the argument that caused the shootout, but the family and their neighbors said Singletary became enraged after Kinsley’s basketball rolled onto his property.
The family’s neighbor, Jonathan Robertson, said Singletary went inside to retrieve the gun then came back out firing. ‘As soon as I saw him coming out shooting, I was hollering at everybody to get down and get inside,’ Robertson said.
‘He looked at my husband and my daughter and told them, “I’m going to kill you,”‘ Kinsley’s mother Ashley Hildebrand told local station WSOC on Wednesday.
Hildebrand said her husband was trying to draw gunfire away from the children when he was shot in the back. He was taken to a hospital in Charlotte, Gaston County Police said.
Kinsley was also treated and released at a local medical center for bullet fragments embedded in her face.
Hildebrand was also grazed by a bullet, and several bullets missed and hit other neighbors’ property,
Singletary has been out of jail on bond since December 2022, after being arrested for allegedly assaulting a woman with a hammer. He should be considered armed and dangerous, Gaston County Police Department (GCPD) said.
‘This sort of violence will not stand,’ GCPD Chief Stephen Zill said on Wednesday. ‘We conducted a large-scale search overnightfor Mr Singletary and we have partnered with the United States Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force to aid us as we continue the search.’
This is a developing news story, more to follow soon… Check back shortly for further updates.
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