Man Arrested In Shooting Of Child, Parents After Neighbor Said Ball Rolled Into Yard

TAMPA, FL — A North Carolina man accused of shooting a 6-year-old girl and her parents after she apparently went to retrieve a basketball in his yard turned himself in to authorities on Thursday.

Robert Louis Singletary, 24, was arrested by Hillsborough County deputies in Tampa shortly before 7 p.m., according to police in Gaston County, North Carolina. Authorities charged Singletary with four counts of attempted first-degree murder, police said.

Singletary is scheduled to appear in Hillsborough County court Friday and is awaiting extradition back to North Carolina.

Singletary is accused of shooting three people Tuesday outside his home in Gastonia, North Carolina, a city of roughly 80,000 people west of Charlotte.

A neighbor told WBTV in Charlotte that the shootings happened after a basketball rolled into Singletary's yard. When a group of kids went to retrieve the ball, the neighbor said Singletary went inside his house, grabbed a gun and began firing.

WCNC reported that police have not yet confirmed those details.

Among those shot was 6-year-old Kinsley White, who was grazed by a bullet on her left cheek. Kinsley was treated at a hospital and released, her family said.

Her father, Jamie White, ran to her aid and was shot in the back. Kinsley's grandfather and neighbor, Carl Hilderbrand, told The Associated Press that he remained hospitalized Thursday with serious wounds, including liver damage. The girl's mother, Ashley Hilderbrand, was grazed in the elbow.

Authorities said Singletary also shot at another man but missed.

“It was very scary,” Ashley Hilderbrand said Wednesday. “My daughter actually got to come home last night. She just had a bullet fragment in her cheek.”

Gaston County Police Chief Stephen Zill said at a news conference Wednesday that his department and the U.S. Marshals Service's Regional Fugitive Task Force had been conducting a broad search for Singletary, who fled after the shootings.

Singletary has a lengthy criminal history, according to court documents obtained by NPR. He was convicted of felonious assault in 2017 and released from prison on parole in September 2020, according to the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction.

In December, he was charged with assaulting his girlfriend with a mini-sledgehammer. Authorities said he made her clean up the evidence before she could leave.

On Wednesday, Gaston County District Attorney Travis Page told WBTV he plans to make sure justice is served this time.

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