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A 24-year-old man was in custody Thursday in connection with the shooting of two adults and a child in North Carolina earlier this week, police said.
Robert Louis Singletary allegedly shot a 6-year-old girl and her parents after their basketball rolled into his yard and the family went to retrieve it, according to local WBTV and WSOC-TV. Singletary turned himself in to police in Tampa, Florida, on Thursday afternoon after a search, the Gaston County Police Department in North Carolina said.
“I want to say to the people of Gaston County – this sort of violence will not stand,” Gaston County Police Department Chief Stephen Zill said in a statement.
The incident follows incidents of gun violence in Missouri, New York and Texas in which everyday mistakes led to shootings.
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North Carolina girl, parents shot
The shooting happened late Tuesday, according to the Gaston County Police Department. 911 operators received a call about a man firing a gun outside of homes in a neighborhood just south of Gastonia, police said in a statement.
Jamie White, who had run to aid his daughter, was shot in the back and remained hospitalized as of late Thursday with serious wounds, according Gaston police. The child, Kinsley White, was grazed by a bullet in the left cheek; she was treated and released, her family said. The girl’s mother, Ashley Hilderbrand, who was grazed by a bullet in the elbow, was also treated and released.
Authorities also said Singletary shot at another man but missed.
According to WSOC-TV, neighbors said several young children were playing basketball when the ball rolled down the street and into the man’s yard. The man became enraged and began shooting, the outlet reported.
Singletary had yelled at the children on several occasions since moving into the neighborhood, neighbor Jonathan Robertson told The Associated Press. Singletary went into his home and came back out with a gun and began shooting, he said. “As soon as I saw him coming out shooting, I was hollering at everybody to get down and get inside,” he said.
In a press conference Wednesday, Zill declined to say what motivated the shooting. He said the investigation was ongoing.
The 6-year-old girl was wounded in the cheek, and her father was shot, WBTV reported. The mother was grazed, the outlet said.
North Carolina man faces 4 counts of attempted first degree murder
Singletary faces 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 felon, police said.
“We conducted a large-scale search overnight for Mr. Singletary and we have partnered with the United States Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force to aid us as we continue to search,” Zill said.
The Gaston County Police Department said Singletary is scheduled to appear in court in Hillsborough County, Florida, on Friday regarding his extradition back to North Carolina.
The Gaston County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not immediately clear if Singletary had a lawyer.
North Carolina gun violence comes after shootings in Missouri, New York, Texas
Tuesday’s incident comes after a number of shootings across the nation in recent days that appear to have been spurred by seemingly ordinary mistakes.
On April 13, a Black teen who mistakenly went to the wrong home to pick up his younger brothers was shot by an 84-year-old white man in Kansas City, Missouri, officials said.
Saturday, a 20-year-old woman looking for a friend’s house in a rural town in upstate New York was fatally shot by a homeowner after the car she was riding in went to the wrong address, authorities said.
And Tuesday, two teen cheerleaders in Texas were shot after they mistakenly got into the wrong car after cheerleading practice, officials said.
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Contributing: Thao Nguyen, Natalie Neysa Alund, N’dea Yancey-Bragg and Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY; The Associated Press.
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