The man suspected of shooting a 6-year-old neighbor and her parents in North Carolina after a basketball ended up in her backyard turned himself in to police officers. He is currently in custody in Hillsborough County, Florida and is due to appear before a judge today.
Police had placed a thousand-dollar bounty on 24-year-old Robert Louis Singletary, accused of attempted murder, armed assault and possession of a firearm with criminal intent. Singletary, who was known for his frequent outbursts against neighborhood children, immediately fled. The father of the child is still hospitalized in Charlotte with lung problems and a perforation in the liver, while the little girl has been discharged.
"The kids were playing basketball, a ball rolled in that yard and they went to get it," neighbor Jonathan Robertson told CNN-affiliated WBTV, "we never expected anyone to shoot at all those kids," he said. "I mean, it was crazy."
"This kind of violence will not stand. We conducted a large-scale search for Mr. Singletary overnight and continue to search. My number one priority as chief is to make sure that every one of our fellow citizens is safe," said the head of the police department, Stephen M. Zill.
It is the fourth case in a few days in the United States in which young people are injured or killed for accidentally being in the wrong place. An 84-year-old man injured Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old African-American who had accidentally rang at his door, in the head. In a rural town in upstate New York, a man shot at a car that accidentally entered his property, killing a 20-year-old girl. And finally in Texas two girls, who were returning from cheerleading training, were injured after opening the wrong car door.