6-year-old girl and her parents shot after basketball rolls into North Carolina man’s yard: report

A 6-year-old girl and her parents were allegedly shot in North Carolina after a basketball rolled into the suspect’s yard, officials and neighbors said.

Neighbors claim the gunman became angry and opened fire, seriously wounding the child — identified as Kinsley White — and her father, William White, according to the local news station WSOC. A bullet also reportedly grazed the child’s mother, Ashley Hilderbrand.

Police haven’t named the victims but say they’re searching for a suspect, 24-year-old Robert Louis Singletary, in connection with a shooting Tuesday night in Gastonia.

“Our detectives secured warrants for Mr. Singletary on 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,” said Gaston County Police Chief Stephen M. Zill.

Kinsley received stitches in her cheek from bullet fragments, and her mother was treated and released from a hospital, WSOC reported. William White remains hospitalized.

“[The gunman] looked at my husband and my daughter and told them, ‘I’m going to kill you,’” Hilderbrand told the TV outlet.

The child says she didn’t know the man who opened fire.

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“Why did you shoot my daddy and me?” Kinsley asked during an interview with WSOC. “Why did you shoot a kid’s dad?”

The United States Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force is assisting Gaston County Police in what the chief described as a “large-scale search” for Singletary.

“This sort of violence will not stand,” Zill said.

“My number one priority as chief is to make sure each and every one of our citizens is safe. Every person in every part of our county deserves that same opportunity, and it is our priority to make that a reality.”

The shooting occurred days after a Black teenager, Ralph Yarl, was shot by an 84-year-old white man, Andrew Lester, after knocking on the wrong door in Kansas City, his family says. Lester, who was charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action, pleaded not guilty Wednesday.

Over the weekend, 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis was fatally shot as a passenger in a car that turned on the wrong driveway in upstate New York, authorities said. Kevin Monahan was charged with second-degree murder.

Days later, two high school cheerleaders were shot after one of them allegedly got into the wrong car near Austin. Police say Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr. has been charged with deadly conduct.