NC man who shot 6-year-old previously arrested for kidnapping

A North Carolina man arrested in Florida last week for shooting at a 6-year-old girl and her parents after a basketball rolled into his yard was arrested months earlier, charged with kidnapping and attacking his girlfriend with a hammer.

Twenty-four-year-old Robert Louis Singletary turned himself into the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Tampa last Thursday after fleeing North Carolina, according to authorities. He appeared in court Friday, three days after Tuesday’s shooting, and signed an extradition waiver, 

Singletary faces up to four counts of first-degree attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, in addition to one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.

Neighbors in Gastonia told WSOC Tuesday’s shooting began when a basketball rolled into Singletary’s yard as several local children played basketball in the street. The children went to get the ball back, and that is when the suspect yelled at them, according to residents.

The father of one of the children then went to the suspect’s door to talk with him about what happened, according to neighbors who spoke with BBC. Police said the suspect retrieved a gun from inside his home and fired it off at neighbors. 

He is charged with shooting William James White and 6-year-old Kinsley White, both wounded. The girl’s mother suffered an elbow wound after a bullet grazed her. Another man was shot but sustained no injuries, ABC News reports. 

The girl and her mother received hospital treatment and were discharged. However, the father was shot in the back and receiving treatment for a punctured lung and liver damage. 

In December, the suspect was arrested by Gastonia Police and charged with assaulting his 21-year-old girlfriend with a mini-sledgehammer. The Gastonia Police Department said in a statement that Singletary held the victim inside his apartment and did not allow her to leave for over two hours after the assault. 

“During the investigation, the victim told officers that she was at Singletary’s apartment on Armstrong Park Road a few hours earlier and that he struck her in the back of the head with a mini sledgehammer,” the statement reads. “The victim said that after being struck, she immediately felt dizzy and disoriented and that she was bleeding profusely from the back of her head. The victim further stated that Singletary told her that she could not leave until she had cleaned up all the evidence from the assault. The victim complied with the Singletary’s demands, and he allowed her to leave the apartment approximately two hours after the assault occurred.”

Singletary was released on Dec. 15 with a secured bond.

In an interview with a local ABC news affiliate, the girl detailed the incident. 

“The bullet came back and the bullet went in my cheek,” the girl said.

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

“We just never expected it in a million years. We never expected anybody would break a gun out amongst all those kids.”

Gaston County Police Chief Stephen Zill told the media, “this sort of violence will not stand.”

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