Police arrest man who opened fire on a six year old child after a basketball rolled into his yard. He was out on bond.

 

Robert Louis Singletary booking photo. ABC News.

Police have arrested a man who opened fire on a six year old girl, her parents and another neighbor after a basketball rolled into his yard. ABC News. Robert Louis Singletary turned himself in after an incident where he shot at four people, including the six year old girl. The girl's father is still in the hospital after shielding his daughter from the attack. The mother and daughter took grazing wounds from the attacker. Singletary was quoted saying "I'm going to kill you" before shooting at the family. Singletary had been charged in a previous incident where he assaulted and detained his girlfriend. He was out on bond for that case when the shooting happened. 

A local news station had an interview with the child that was shot. WSOC-TV.

My Comment:

I am surprised that this story is getting national news coverage given that respective races involved. It's still not getting the same amount of attention it would have gotten if this was a white man shooting a black girl, but it is still getting widespread news coverage. Indeed, I found the story on the top of Google News. Perhaps some crimes are so vile that even the American news media has to cover it. 

As terrible as this news story is, it would probably not be an important story if not for one thing. Singletary was out on bond. His other crime too was terrible. He beat his girlfriend with a hammer and could have easily killed her. He was out on bond for that case but was somehow able to get a gun and commit this attack. 

In a sane world a man who beats his girlfriend with a hammer would not be out on the street. But instead of tightening up on who gets out on bond and bail we have gone the exact opposite way. We don't keep people in jail anymore even when they are accused of violent crimes. Some of this is just because we simply don't have the resources to detain everyone. Even I think we do need some form of bail but I do think we need some reform so violent criminals aren't the ones that get it. 

But the reform we are getting is going the other way. Indeed, there are even "charitable" organizations that pay people's bonds for them. And many jurisdictions are allowing people to get out on bail no matter what they are accused of. This part of North Carolina is probably not one of them but the movement has been away from keeping suspects in jail until their court date. 

I think this is also a good example of how gun control doesn't work. Singletary is a convicted felon and was also out on bond. How did he get a gun? If he had tried to do so legally he would have failed his background check (unless it was a paperwork mess up). So he either bought and kept the gun from when he wasn't a felon or he simply got it illegally. 

As for the attack itself, we should recognize the heroism of the father in this case, William White. He tried to draw fire away from his family and ended up getting shot in the process. His family might have survived because of his actions so I'm comfortable calling him a genuine hero. 

I do have to wonder what possesses someone to do something like this. I mean, it's clear that Singletary is a scumbag, most decent people don't beat up their girlfriends with a hammer. But even by the standards of criminal scumbags, shooting a six year old is pretty low. And he wasn't even doing it for some political cause or some other kind of understandable reason. He shot at a family because a basketball rolled into a yard. Normal people either wouldn't react at all or, at worst, would be very slightly annoyed. But he got a gun and opened fire? Who acts like this? And what can be done about it?