Robert Singletary, accused of shooting child, parents over basketball, arrested

A North Carolina man who allegedly fired shots at a 6-year-old and her parents after a basketball rolled into his yard turned himself in at a Florida police station Thursday after two days on the lam, according to officials.

Robert Louis Singletary, 24, handed himself over to authorities in Tampa, over 560 miles from where he allegedly opened fire on his neighbors, police said.

Police say Singletary fired on little Kinsley White and her parents, Ashley Hilderbrand and William White, Tuesday after becoming enraged that a young group of kids playing let their basketball land on his Gastonia property.

Witnesses said the irate man stormed down the street and fired at a neighbor before shooting at the White family.

Kinsley needed stitches on her face from bullet fragments and Hilderbrand was grazed by a bullet.


Robert Louis Singletary, 24, handed himself over to authorities in Tampa, over 560 miles from where he allegedly opened fire on his neighbors.
Robert Louis Singletary, 24, handed himself over to authorities in Tampa, over 560 miles from where he allegedly opened fire on his neighbors.
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office

William White was critically injured while attempting to protect his daughter. He reportedly tried to distract Singletary and draw the gunfire away from the children when he was struck in the back.

“We don’t even know the man,” Kinsley said of the attack. “Why did you shoot my daddy and me? Why did you shoot a kid’s dad?”

Hilderbrand said that Singletary told her husband and daughter, “I’m going to kill you.”


Kinsley needed stitches on her face from bullet fragments and Hilderbrand was grazed by a bullet.
Kinsley needed stitches on her face from bullet fragments and Hilderbrand was grazed by a bullet.
via WSOC TV

Singletary reportedly fired until he ran out of bullets and fled, launching a manhunt for who police called an “armed and dangerous” man.

He’s been 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.

The North Carolina man has a violent history and was arrested two times for attacking someone with a dangerous weapon in the last seven years.


William White was critically injured while attempting to protect his daughter. He reportedly tried to distract Singletary and draw the gunfire away from the children when he was struck in the back.
William White was critically injured while attempting to protect his daughter. He reportedly tried to distract Singletary and draw the gunfire away from the children when he was struck in the back.
via WSOC TV

He was arrested in December for allegedly walloping his girlfriend in the back of her head with a mini sledgehammer. She claimed Singletary refused to let her leave for two hours until she cleaned up the evidence.

Singletary was also convicted of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury for an incident on Halloween in 2016.