Global Courant 2023-04-21 03:56:18
A North Carolina man was taken into custody Thursday and charged with shooting a man and his 6-year-old daughter over a basketball that neighbors said had rolled into his yard.
Robert Louis Singletary, 24, turned himself in in Tampa, Florida, after a manhunt that began Tuesday night, said Adam Gaub, the communications director for Gaston County, North Carolina, west of Charlotte.
It was not immediately clear where Singletary was found.
Authorities were still investigating the shooting, which took place shortly before 8 p.m. Tuesday outside a Gastonia home, Gaston County police said. A motive was not immediately clear, Gaub said, and authorities have not disclosed what they believe prompted the shooting.
Singletary is charged with attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm, provincial police said Wednesday.
The girl had a bullet fragment in her cheek and was released from the hospital, her mother, Ashley Hilderbrand, told NBC WCNC from charlotte. Hilderbrand was scraped by a bullet while her husband is in hospital. Gaub said he remained in serious condition at a hospital in Charlotte.
“It was very scary,” said Hilderbrand. “My daughter really had to come home last night. She just had a bullet fragment in her cheek. Still, scary, but my husband, he’s still in the hospital.”
Neighbors told WCNC that children were playing outside when a basketball rolled into Singletary’s yard.
Hailey Martin, 17, said in a phone call Thursday that Singletary had been staying at the house for less than a month and would complain about toys and balls on his property. The teen, who was outside when shots rang out, said she believes the shooting was sparked by a ball bouncing in his yard.
“It’s sad to see little kids break up and run for their lives,” she said.
“This neighborhood has always been peaceful and quiet,” she added. “There are always kids running around. We don’t care if the balls end up in the yard, because the kids or the parents come to return the toys.”
Another neighbor, Jonathan Robertson, told WCNC that he saw Singletary coming home from the shooting.
“I was yelling at everyone to get down and get in,” he said.
Gaub said at a press conference on Wednesday that additional charges could be filed because bullets entered a nearby home.
The shooting follows three similar incidents involving gun violence after apparently innocent missteps.
Two Texas cheerleaders were shot this week after one of them accidentally got into the wrong vehicle. In New York, a woman was shot dead after she and some friends pulled into the driveway of a house they believed belonged to another friend, and in Missouri, a teenager was shot and injured after ringing the wrong door while trying to pick up his younger one. brothers.
