Police arrest NC man who allegedly shot 6-year-old, parents and neighbor when basketball rolled into yard

A North Carolina man allegedly shot a 6-year-old girl, her parents and a neighbor after a basketball rolled into her yard.

Suspect Robert Louis Singletary, 24, turned himself in at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Tampa, Fla., on Thursday, Gaston County Police said.

Gaston County Police received a 911 call about a local shooting at 7:44 pm Tuesday. Investigators later discovered that the Singletary seriously injured an adult man and a young woman, another woman was grazed by a bullet, and a second adult man was shot.

Police have identified three adult victims as Gastonia natives William James White, Ashley Hildebrand and Derrick Kenneth Placer. Police say White suffered a gunshot wound and remains seriously injured. Police said Hildebrandt was slightly shot and Prazer was shot but not hit. A 6-year-old boy, whose name has not been released, also suffered a gunshot wound, police said.

Neighbors told ABC News’ Charlotte bureau WSOC that the shootings began after a basketball rolled into Singletary’s yard from a group of local children playing basketball in the street. Singletary allegedly opened fire on neighbors before approaching his father and son William and six-year-old Kinsley White. Both were taken to a local hospital for treatment.

“Why did you shoot my daddy and me? Why did you shoot your kid’s daddy?” Kinsley asked in an emotional interview. She could see her stitches on her cheek from the shrapnel of her bullet that hit her.

Family members say that when Singletary unloaded an entire magazine toward a neighbor, William White tried to draw a gunshot toward himself to protect the family. According to his partner Ashley Hilderbrand, White was shot in the back in his own front yard.

“He looked at my husband and daughter and said, ‘I’m going to kill you,'” Hilderbrand said.

Gaston County Police have multiple warrants for Singletary’s arrest. He is charged with four counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.

Police said Singletary is due to appear in a Florida court on Friday regarding his extradition to North Carolina.

In December, Singletary was charged in a separate case after assaulting his girlfriend with a small sledgehammer, causing him to bleed profusely from the back of his head and pushing him into an apartment for two hours.

“The victim further said Singletary told her she couldn’t leave until all the evidence of the assault was cleared up,” the December press release read.

“I want to say to the people of Gaston County, this kind of violence is unacceptable,” said Gaston County Police Chief Stephen M. Gill.

The North Carolina mass shooting follows a series of similar incidents in which seemingly mundane mistakes led to serious consequences involving firearms. Last week, two of her cheerleaders were shot in Texas after getting into the wrong car in a parking lot, a woman died after going into the wrong driveway in New York, and her 16-year-old died after ringing a doorbell in Missouri. girl was shot. wrong house.