Robert Louis Singletary, 24, shot a 6-year-old girl and her parents when a basketball went into his backyard, neighbors said, on Tuesday.
A manhunt is underway near Charlotte, North Carolina, in the United States, for Singletary, who should be considered dangerous, according to Gaston County Police. He is 1.80 m and about 100 kg, with brown eyes and black hair.
According to neighbors, the incident began on Tuesday (18), when a basketball went into Singletary’s backyard and he yelled at the children who came to get it.
One of the children told the father, who then went to Singletary’s house and said something along the lines of “stop cursing my son! If you have a problem, come to me and we can solve it,” according to three neighbors.
Singletary then went inside, came out with a gun and opened fire on neighbors, injuring a 6-year-old girl and her parents, neighbors said.
“We never expected anyone to pull a gun among all those kids,” neighbor Jonathan Robertson told the affiliate. CNN WBTV . “I mean, that was crazy.”
The 6-year-old said she was hit in the cheek and described to WBTV her understanding of what happened.
“I couldn’t get in in time so he shot my dad in the back,” she said.
The girl’s mother, Ashley Hildebrand, told CNN that doctors removed bullet fragments from her daughter’s cheek and noted that her own elbow had been hit. She said they had nothing to do with the basketball game; the family was outside the house and her daughter was riding her bicycle.
Police have not confirmed what started Tuesday night’s shooting in Gastonia, citing the investigation.
The incident was another case last week in which youths were shot after making a common mistake, including two teenage cheerleaders mistakenly approaching someone else’s vehicle in a Texas supermarket parking lot, a 16-year-old who touched wrong doorbell in Kansas and a 20-year-old who turned the wrong doorway in New York.
The shootings reflect the consequences of a country with more civilian guns than people, according to the Small Arms Survey, and the toxic mix of fear, paranoia and mistrust that influences so many and leads to violence.
In the Gaston County shooting, the father – identified by the family as William “Jamie” White – was seriously injured and remains hospitalized, Police Chief Stephen Zill said Wednesday night in a statement.
“He’s been taking it day after day,” White’s mother, Debbie Wykle White, told CNN by text message. “He is in great pain and is concerned for his family with the suspect on the run and him in the hospital unable to protect his wife and children.”
The girl and her mother were treated and released, police said. Another man was also shot but not injured, police said in a press release.
Neighbors say suspect had yelled at children before
For Singletary, police obtained warrants for four counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and one count of possession of a firearm by a criminal, police said.
“I want to say to the people of Gaston County – this type of violence is not going to last,” Zill said, adding that the US Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force is helping to hunt down Singletary.
Several neighbors in the area told the CNN that Singletary had moved into her house a few weeks ago, and since then she used to yell at the kids for being in her backyard.
They described him as “hating children” in the neighborhood, often angry with them playing and running around in the yard.
A neighbor – who did not want his name used – told the CNN who had complained to her about children running around in her backyard just before the shooting. She said she informed him that her grandson was already inside and he left.
In Tuesday’s shooting, the father who confronted Singletary fled and was not injured, neighbors said.
Robertson, who lives across the street, and another neighbor said Singletary took one “eye look” and started walking towards other parents and children and started shooting.
Neighbors described Singletary as having his arm outstretched, just “shooting, pow, pow, pow” as he walked down the street. They said the scene was chaotic as children and parents ran through the backyards trying to take cover.
Neighbors are now very nervous and several have told CNN who haven’t slept out of fear as Singletary hasn’t been caught and fear he’ll come back to the neighborhood.
Singletary was charged in December with assault and kidnapping for allegedly attacking his girlfriend with a sledgehammer and keeping her inside his apartment for more than two hours, police said in a statement.
Charges are pending and he has not filed a plea in the case, Gaston County Superior Court clerk Jennifer Davis said. Singletary was released on $250,000 bail on Dec. 15, records show.
A CNN reached out to his defense attorney, Cameron Harrison, for further comment.
(Sarah Dewberry and Daniella Mora, from CNN contributed to this text)
Source: CNN Brasil
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