4 recent shootings in the U.S. highlight risks posed by proliferation of guns
In the latest incident, a North Carolina man is accused of opening fire on a 6-year-old girl and her parents after a basketball rolled into his yard.
A North Carolina man accused of shooting at a 6-year-old girl, Kinsley White, and her parents after a basketball rolled into his yard was arrested Thursday in Florida following a three-day manhunt.
During a brief court appearance Friday morning, Robert Louis Singletary, 24, waived extradition to Gaston County, N.C., where he is facing four counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill, inflicting serious injury, and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm in connection with the April 18 shooting.
Kinsley, who had bullet fragments removed from her cheek, and her mother were treated at a local hospital and released, Gaston County Police Chief Stephen Zill said Wednesday. Another man, a neighbor, was shot at but not hit, police said. The girl’s father, who was seriously injured, remains hospitalized in Charlotte.
Singletary will be held without bond on a fugitive warrant pending the charges. According to authorities, he also faces charges for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend with a mini-sledgehammer.
The incident was the latest in a string of shootings to make national headlines in the past week that were triggered by seemingly innocuous encounters, all of them involving young victims.
According to a Pew Research Center report released earlier this month, the number of children and teens killed by gunfire in the United States increased 50% between 2019 (when there were 1,732 deaths) and 2021 (2,590). And more children and teens were killed by gunfire in 2021 than in any year since at least 1999, the first year the CDC began tracking the data.
Overall, the rate of U.S. gun deaths in 2021 hit its highest mark in nearly three decades, according to a study published last November in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Here’s everything we know about the other three incidents.
Cheerleaders shot in Austin, Texas, after one got into wrong car
Early Tuesday morning, two members of an elite competitive cheerleading team in Austin, Texas, were shot by Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., 25, after one of the teens reportedly tried mistakenly to get into the wrong car after practice. One of the victims, 18-year-old Payton Washington, was shot in the leg and back and flown to a nearby hospital in critical condition. Washington’s father said the teen had her spleen removed and is now in stable condition, but she remains in the ICU.
In an Instagram Live on Tuesday evening, one of Washington’s coaches said the teen suffered damage to multiple organs. The high school senior and incoming athlete for Baylor University's Acrobatic and Tumbling team, who had already been competing with just one lung, is expected to undergo additional surgeries this week, according to Woodlands Elite Cheer Company co-owner Lynne Shearer.
"She's a fighter. She's very strong," Shearer told ABC13.
According to officials, one of Washington’s teammates, Heather Roth, had gotten out of the car the girls were in and opened the door of another car that she believed to be her own just after midnight. The girls typically carpooled to a cheerleading practice and went their separate ways at a designated site. After Roth noticed a man sitting in the passenger seat, she panicked and got back in the other car with her teammates. Realizing her mistake, Roth rolled down her window to apologize to the man as he approached the car. Shortly after, the man reportedly threw up his hands without saying anything and began shooting, according to Washington’s father. Roth suffered a graze wound, and Washington was shot twice.
Police later arrested the alleged gunman, Rodriguez, on Tuesday. He is charged with deadly conduct, a third-degree felony. He was last reported in custody at Bastrop County Jail with $500,000 bond.
This weekend Washington was set to compete at Cheerleading Worlds in Orlando, Fla., one of the few competitions the star athlete had not won to date. In her honor, Shearer said the team will stay in the event.
“She's literally won everything there is to win in this sport except for a world title, and this was her last chance to do that," Shearer said. "Payton is the ultimate competitor. She would not want her team not to go and not be at this championship and not compete. So we will be there, and we will compete."
A GoFundMe created by Washington’s team, the Woodlands Elite Generals, was created to help “ease the financial burden to this family of their medical expenses,” adding that she “will have a long road to recovery.” In three days, the fundraiser has raised more than $120,000 to help with her recovery.
Woman shot and killed in upstate New York after car pulled into wrong driveway
In upstate New York last Saturday night, Kaylin Gillis, 20, was allegedly shot and killed by Kevin Monahan, a 65-year-old homeowner, while driving in a car that mistakenly turned in to the wrong driveway. Monahan was not cooperative with police, who, after booking him into Warren County Jail, said he had no reason to feel threatened.
Gillis’s friends and family continue to mourn her death, many unable to comprehend how or why shooting at the vehicle was necessary. Blake Walsh, her boyfriend, told NBC News late Tuesday that he and three passengers had been looking for a party in Hebron, N.Y., about 50 miles north of Albany, and had lost cell service when they realized they were in the wrong driveway. As they pulled out of the driveway, the homeowner shot twice at their vehicle, striking Gillis. The group was traveling with another vehicle that had also pulled into the wrong driveway.
“We thought we were at the right address,” Walsh told NBC. “We didn’t have any cell service to figure it out. As soon as we figured it out that we were at the wrong location, we started to leave, and that’s when everything happened.”
Authorities said the group had to drive about 6 miles to a nearby town before they got through to 911. Soon after, emergency workers arrived to perform lifesaving measures on Gillis, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Monahan was arraigned Sunday on charges of second-degree murder and pleaded not guilty, according to his lawyer, Kurt Mausert, who claims his client felt threatened by multiple vehicles near his home.
“This was not a simple case of coming up a driveway and turning around,” he told CNN. “The description I was given by my client is there were multiple vehicles, including a motorcycle, revving engines, coming up the driveway at a high rate of speed.”
During a bail hearing Wednesday, Monahan was described as a man with a reputation for being “hot-tempered.” He was remanded without bail as prosecutors argued that he was a flight risk. If convicted, he faces a minimum of 15 years to life and a maximum of 25 years to life in prison.
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, called the shooting “horrifying.”
“No one should be shot for showing up to the wrong house,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a tweet. “We cannot become numb to these tragedies.”
A GoFundMe organized on behalf of Gillis’s family raised more than $140,000 in four days to help pay for “Kaylin’s funeral expenses and any immediate financial needs.”
Kansas City, Mo., teen shot after ringing the wrong doorbell
Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old white man, allegedly shot Ralph Yarl, a Black 16-year-old, last week after Yarl rang Lester’s doorbell in Kansas City, Mo., thinking his two younger brothers were inside. Yarl had the wrong address, and Lester, who told police he feared for his safety, opened fire.
Nearly a week after being shot once in the face and again in the arm, Yarl continues to steadily improve, family attorney Lee Merritt said in a post to Twitter Wednesday morning. Accompanying the tweet was a photo of Yarl and Merritt on a bench, both smiling, with the caption “How the bullet in his head did not cause more extensive damage is truly a miracle. To God be the glory!”
Lester surrendered himself to the Clay County Detention Center on Tuesday, a day after being charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action; hours later he posted bond. Lester told police that he thought Yarl was trying to break in and was “scared to death,” which prompted him to shoot the teen twice — at least one of those shots coming from behind a locked glass door. Lester pleaded not guilty during a Wednesday court hearing and is out on $200,000 bond. He is due back in court June 1.
His grandson Klint Ludwig told CNN on Thursday that he was frustrated by his grandfather’s actions but not surprised.
“The warning signs were there. I wasn’t shocked when I heard the news,” Ludwig said. “I believe he held — holds — racist tendencies and beliefs.”
As more facts about the case are revealed, the Kansas City community continues to rally around Yarl. Hundreds of students and faculty members from Staley High School participated in a unity walk on Tuesday morning in support of Yarl, who is enrolled at the school.
Dozens of students wearing blue, Yarl’s favorite color, alongside fellow classmates carried signs with messages that read “Stop the hate” and “Justice for Ralph” while the group repeatedly chanted, “We love you, Ralph!” as they made their way down a long, windy road in front of the high school.
In an interview with "CBS Mornings" on Tuesday, Yarl’s mother, Cleo Nagbe, said her son continues to replay the incident in his head — often just sitting and staring into space before the tears begin.
“You can see that he is just replaying the situation over and over again,” Nagbe said. “And that just doesn't stop my tears either, because when you see your kid just sits there and constantly he just ... tears are just rolling from both sides of his eyes, there's nothing you can say to him.”
A GoFundMe organized by Ralph’s aunt Faith Spoonmore has raised more than $3.4 million in five days to help pay for medical bills and therapy. Additional funds will go toward his college education.
“Thank you so much for loving Ralph,” an updated note on the fundraiser page read.
Shootings highlight role of guns in America
For many critics, the flurry of shootings raise questions about the role of guns in American society.
“These shootings highlight the dangers that guns can pose when in the hands of someone who doesn't have the training and understanding of how to assess a threat,” George Salinas, a San Antonio, Texas-based personal injury lawyer, told Yahoo News. “At worst, you may also see folks who feel like ‘stand your ground’ laws give them a license to eliminate any perceived threat, versus real threat, based on the notion that they've identified a trespasser on their property.”
Nearly half of Americans, or 44%, say they live in a household with guns, according to a 2020 Gallup survey. And many Americans who do own guns have more than one. There are about 120 guns for every 100 Americans, according to the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey.
For others, these shooting incidents don’t reflect poorly on the Second Amendment.
“I think it is very important that when a person misuses their right to bear arms for laws to be enforced and that the person should have to face the entire brunt of the violation of those laws,” Kenneth Gray, a criminal justice professor at the University of New Haven, told Yahoo News.
The 24-year FBI veteran added, “You can’t shoot a person just because they try to knock on your door.”
