Man shoots girl, six, and her parents after ball rolls into his backyard

The shooting occurred on Wednesday in North Carolina when several young children were playing with a basketball which rolled into the yard of Robert Singletary, who neighbors say was new to the area and often mad at the local children, the news outlet WSOC-TV reported. It continued a recent spate of shootings across the US involving a property owner who fired at young people who approached them either by mistake or for an innocent reason.

Witnesses told the station that Singletary ran out of his home upset after the ball rolled on to his yard and started firing a gun at a neighbor. William White and his six-year-old daughter Kinsley were seriously hurt during the shooting. White had his own gun and tried to shoot back at Singletary, who witnesses say unloaded an entire magazine at White and his daughter.

Kinsley had to have stitches due to bullet fragments in her cheek, and she told reporters that she was worried about her father.

White was seriously injured after being shot in the back. Hilderbrand was grazed by a bullet and was back home on Wednesday after being discharged from a hospital.

Singletary remained at large as of Thursday morning. Police warned local residents that he is armed and dangerous.

Wednesday was not the first time Singletary was accused of acting violently. He was separately charged in December with assaulting his girlfriend with a miniature sledgehammer and keeping her in their apartment for two hours as she was bleeding, ABC News reported.

On 18 April, Kaylin Gillis, 20, was shot and killed by an upstate New York resident after the car she was riding in accidentally pulled into the wrong driveway.