Gunman Opens Fire on Girl, 6, Parents, Over Basketball

Police in Gaston County, North Carolina, are looking for a man who allegedly opened fire and shot a 6-year-old girl and her parents after a basketball rolled into his yard earlier this week.

Neighbors told WSOC-TV that several young children were playing basketball Tuesday night when the ball rolled into the yard of suspect Robert Singletary.

The suspect became angry and ran down the street, firing his gun at a neighbor before coming back and shooting at Ashley Hilderbrand and her husband, William White, who was carrying their daughter, Kinsley White.

The little girl needed stitches on her face after she was injured by bullet fragments, and her father, who reportedly tried to draw gunfire toward him and away from his children was shot in the back. He remained hospitalized Wednesday, WSOC-TV reported.

“We don’t even know the man,” the little girl told the television station. “Why did you shoot my daddy and me? Why did you shoot a kid’s dad?”

Her mother was grazed by a bullet, and she and her daughter are recovering at home.

Their neighbors told the television station that Singletary allegedly kept shooting until he ran out of bullets.

“He looked at my husband and my daughter and told them, ‘I’m going to kill you,’ ” Hilderbrand said.

Singletary is charged with four counts of first-degree attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury, and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon, Gaston County police said.

The department has offered a $1,000 reward for anyone helping to locate him.

“I want to say to the people of Gaston County — this sort of violence will not stand,” Police Chief Stephen Zill said in a statement.

The U.S. Marshals Service is helping in the search for Singletary.