Black Man Who Shot White Family in North Carolina Told Victims He Doesn't 'Like White People'

In the seconds before he was shot, Jamie White saw a man point a revolver at his 6-year-old daughter, Kinsley.

He acted, moving to the left to shield Kinsley.

"I just ran towards my daughter," White said. "That's when he shot me."

White arrived home from Carolinas Medical Center at around 8 p.m. Saturday evening. On Monday morning, every movement, even deep breaths, brought him pain.

But White is alive to feel that pain, and he is grateful for that fact, despite the long road to recovery ahead of him.

Speaking in an interview outside his home in Crowders Mountain, White recounted the shooting, which stemmed from a conflict with his then-neighbor, Robert Louis Singletary, over a basketball that rolled into Singletary's yard.

Singletary is accused of shooting and wounding three people on April 18: Jamie White, his wife, Ashley Hilderbrand, and Kinsley, who was wounded by bullet fragments that lodged in her cheek.

The three of them were shot on what, in many ways, was a normal spring evening. Jamie White was grilling steaks outside, and Kinsley was playing with a group of neighborhood children down the street.

The first sign of trouble came when the basketball rolled into Singletary's yard, according to White who said Singletary confronted other neighbors about it.

"It looked like a normal conversation," White said.

Singletary walked into his home and came out with a gun, according to White.

"He comes back out the door running, firing at that man and his kids," White said. "At that point, I took off. My youngin' was down the road too. My little girl and about 10, 12 other kids were down there. They were all stunned. It was the first time they had ever seen anything like that."

White ran down the road, telling the children to come with him. Singletary approached White, who told him there were too many children outside for him to be shooting, White said.

"I said, 'Man, that's crazy.' And he said, "You white? I don't even like white people. I'm going to shoot your a--," White said.

White said that Singletary dropped the gun he was holding and grabbed another, then ran across the road and started firing at White and Kinsley.

"He fires three shots. He hasn't hit nobody yet. So I turn around and look… My daughter's right in front of me. I look and see, and he's pointing straight at my daughter," he said. "And I just run towards my daughter... and that's when he got me."

White fell to the ground. The bullet had punctured one of his lungs and his liver, coming out through his belly. The shrapnel lodged in Kinsley's cheek.

Singletary pulled the trigger another three times and missed, White said.

"I was worried about my babies," White said. "I was already hit. I was losing breath. I was on fire. I honestly didn't think I was going to make it."

[...] For his part, [White] was angry when he learned that Singletary had been released from jail on an unsecured bond after an alleged assault in December, when he was accused of beating his girlfriend with a miniature sledgehammer and holding her captive.

"None of this would have happened if the judicial system would have done their job," White said.

“Why did you shoot me? Why did you shoot my dad?”
6 yo Kinsley White has stitches from bullet fragments in her cheek. @gastoncountypd say Robert Singletary is on the run after firing shots on April Dr. last night. Kinsley’s mother & father were hit by shots too. The mom is home. pic.twitter.com/QAhw6XcZ1W

— Ken (@kenlemonWSOC9) April 19, 2023