By Nadine Yousif
Police tape blocks off a US crime scene. Photo: AFP or licensors
Police in North Carolina are searching for a man accused of shooting a six-year-old girl and her father after their basketball rolled into the suspect's yard.
Two other victims, a woman and a man, were also injured.
Police said the suspect, 24-year-old Robert Louis Singletary, remains at large.
Singletary faces four counts of first-degree attempted murder.
Police have also charged the suspect with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.
The suspect was previously known to police for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend with a sledgehammer in December.
Police in Gaston County first received a 911 call at 7.44pm local time on Tuesday about the shooting.
Investigators later reported that a six-year-old child and her father were both seriously injured. An adult female was grazed by a bullet and a second adult male was shot, they said.
A neighbour told reporters that the shooting unfolded after a basketball rolled into the suspect's yard.
"They were playing basketball, and a ball rolled into his yard. They went to go and get it. It was just crazy," said Jonathan Robertson, who lives in the Gaston County neighbourhood. "We just never expected it in a million years. We never expected anybody would break a gun out amongst all those kids."
Police said the suspect went inside his home and came out with a gun before he fired indiscriminately at neighbours. William and his daughter were struck as parents were rushing to gather their children.
The child has since spoken out about the shooting in an interview with a local ABC news channel.
"The bullet came back and the bullet went in my cheek," said the six-year-old, who is not being named by the BBC due to her age.
She added that her father remains in hospital in Charlotte. He was being treated for a punctured lung and liver problems after he was shot in the back.
Police have issued warrants for Singletary's arrest, said Gaston County Police chief Stephen Zill in a statement on Wednesday.
Zill added that "this sort of violence will not stand".
"We conducted a large-scale search overnight for Mr Singletary and we have partnered with the United States Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force to aid us as we continue to search," he said.
The shooting was the latest in a string of gun violence incidents across the US involving young Americans who are reported to have mistakenly approached the wrong person or home.
In Texas, 18-year-old cheerleader Payton Washington was shot and seriously injured on Tuesday after she mistakenly tried to enter the wrong vehicle in a parking lot near Austin, Texas.
In New York state, 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis was shot and killed on Saturday after a friend drove their car down the wrong driveway.
And last Thursday in Missouri, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot in the head and arm when he rang the doorbell at the wrong address.
- BBC
