6-year-old, others shot after basketball rolled into man’s yard

GASTON COUNTY, N.C. (WBTV/Gray News/AP) – Three people, including a 6-year-old girl, were hurt Tuesday night when a man opened fire in North Carolina.

“The bullet came back and went into my cheek,” the young girl said, whose name was not released.

The girl’s father was also hit by a bullet and was taken to the hospital with a punctured lung and liver problems.

“I couldn’t get inside in time, so he just…he shot my daddy in the back,” the 6-year-old recalled.

Neighbors were shocked that someone would open fire around so many children.

“We never expected to break a gun out with all those kids. I mean, that was insane,” said Jonathan Robertson who has lived in the neighborhood for a decade.

He said 24-year-old Robert Louis Singletary, the man accused of the shooting, was well-known in the area for yelling at the neighborhood kids.

Robertson said Singletary had yelled on several occasions and a ball rolling into his yard was the catalyst for Tuesday’s shooting.

“They were playing basketball and a ball rolled into his yard and they went to go and get it,” Robertson said. “It was just crazy.”

Police said Singletary went inside his home and came out with a gun, firing wildly at neighbors.

As parents were rushing to gather their children, the little girl and her father were hit while another woman suffered a graze wound.

Singletary ran to Florida but surrendered to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Tampa Thursday afternoon, according to Gaston County Police.

“I want him to go to jail forever,” the 6-year-old girl said, a feeling that was echoed by the District Attorney’s Office.

“We’ll be damn sure to be loud and clear when this case comes to court,” District Attorney Travis Page said. “The people of Gaston County will see and hear our commitment to that prosecution.”

Singletary waived extradition during a brief court appearance Friday morning in Florida.

He replied, “indeed,” when Hillsborough Circuit Judge Catherine Catlin asked if he would sign the waiver to allow officials to take him back to North Carolina to face charges in Tuesday’s shooting of the girl and her parents. He will be held without bond on a fugitive warrant.

The judge said she would hold another detention hearing if North Carolina officials haven’t picked Singletary up by April 24.

Singletary is facing four counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill inflicting serious injury, and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Copyright 2023 WBTV via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.