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Neighbor who shot at six-year-old girl when basketball rolled into his yard is arrested

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The man accused of shooting a six-year-old girl and her parents after her ball rolled into his front yard has been arrested after it emerged he was previously cited for attacking his girlfriend with a mini-sledgehammer.

Police and law enforcement officials in North Carolina say Robert Louis Singletary, 24, opened fire on Kinsley White, 6, and her parents Tuesday night in Gastonia, North Carolina.

Singletary turned himself in to investigators in Tampa, Florida late Thursday evening, according to police. Tampa is located roughly 600 miles from Gastonia.

In a news release from the domestic violenceincident which took place in December, police said Singletary did not allow the victim to leave for several hours, despite her feeling ‘dizzy’ after being struck.

‘The victim further stated that Singletary told her that she could not leave until she had cleaned up all the evidence from the assault,’ the release states.

Robert Louis Singletary, 24, who allegedly shot a six-year-old girl and her parents Tuesday in North Carolina was previously cited for attacking his girlfriend with a mini-sledgehammer

Robert Louis Singletary, 24, who allegedly shot a six-year-old girl and her parents Tuesday in North Carolina was previously cited for attacking his girlfriend with a mini-sledgehammer
Six-year-old Kinsley White was shot in the cheek after a neighbor opened fire on her and her parents when her basketball rolled into his yard

Six-year-old Kinsley White was shot in the cheek after a neighbor opened fire on her and her parents when her basketball rolled into his yard

According to the Gaston County Police, Singletary turned himself in to officials around 4.45pm at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Tampa, Florida.

At the time he was arrested, Singletary did not have identification on him.

His identity was confirmed with Tampa law enforcement and processed just before 7pm Eastern Standard Time Thursday.

The shooting suspect is next scheduled to appear in court Friday, April 21, in Hillsborough County, Gaston Police said in a post.

 

His court appearance will address his extradition to Gaston County, North Carolina.

While speaking with WSOC, Kinsley’s mother Ashley Hilderbrand, asked the suspect to turn himself in after it was reported that he went on the run.

‘Just please turn yourself in,’ she said. ‘There was no sense in what you did.’

As local residents continue to try to understand why the horrific shooting took place, details of his arrest in December have since reemerged.

A release from December states that Singletary attacked his 21-year-old girlfriend at his apartment in Gastonia.

Police reported to a local hospital around 9.30am to speak with the woman who had called 911 after the assault in which she was hit in the back of the head with a mini-sledgehammer.

‘The victim said that after being struck, she immediately felt dizzy and disoriented and that she was bleeding profusely from the back of her head,’ a release stated.

The woman complied and was held inside the apartment for two hours.

While searching the apartment, officers located evidence from the assault including the mini-sledgehammer believed to have been used to assault the woman.

An arrest warrant was later issued and Singletary was charged with assault with intent to inflict serious injury, kidnapping, and communicating threats.

Singletary was held on a $250,000 which he later made.

In Tuesday’s shooting, Kinsley and her father, William White, were both injured.

Hilderbrand said that at the time of the shooting, William was attempting to distract the neighbor so that other children could get away.

William was struck in the back by a bullet and remains in the hospital at this time.

Kinsley’s mother told WSOC she was outside and said she heard Singletary make a threat to her family members.

‘He looked at my husband and my daughter and told them, “I’m going to kill you,” Hilderbrand said.

She said the neighbor then chased them while shooting.

He allegedly kept firing until his gun had run out of bullets.

‘I believe he would have got me and my husband too,’ said Carolyn Hilderbrand, Kinsley’s grandmother. ‘He just run out of bullets.’

‘We don’t even know the man,’ Kinsley told WSOC.

The young girl spoke with the local news station just hours after the incident and with bullet fragments still lodged in her cheek.

As she talked with reporters, she held her grandfather’s hand and fought back tears.

Kinsley also repeatedly voiced her concern for her father’s health.

‘Why did you shoot my daddy and me? Why did you shoot a kid’s dad?’ Kinsley asked.

 

According to neighbors who spoke with local outlets, Singletary was new to the neighborhood and was known for getting upset with the local children.

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Pope Francis to undergo intestinal surgery and will be hospitalized for several days

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Pope Francis went to the hospital on Wednesday for surgery on his intestine, two years after he had 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his colon removed because of an inflammation and narrowing of the large intestine.

The Vatican said Francis, 86, would be put under general anesthesia and would be hospitalized for several days.

Pope Francis appeared at his weekly general audience on Wednesday, a day after he went to the hospital for a checkup.

The Vatican provided no details about the medical tests Francis underwent on Tuesday at Rome’s Gemelli hospital. Francis, 86, appeared in good form, though, at his audience in St. Peter’s Square, zipping around the square in his popemobile greeting the faithful. He also had two meetings Wednesday morning beforehand, the Vatican said.

Francis spent three days at the Gemelli hospital in late March. Initially, the Vatican said he had gone in for scheduled tests, but the pontiff later revealed he had felt pain in his chest and was rushed to the hospital where bronchitis was diagnosed. He was put on intravenous antibiotics and was released April 1, quipping that he was “still alive.”

The Argentine pope had part of one lung removed when he was a young man. He also suffers from sciatica nerve pain and has been using a wheelchair and walker for more than a year because of strained ligaments in his knee.

Francis has had a packed schedule of late, with multiple audiences each day. The Vatican has recently confirmed a travel-filled August, when the Holy See and Italy are usually on vacation, with a four-day visit to Portugal the first week of August and a similarly long trip to Mongolia starting Aug. 31.

In a sign that the trips were very much on, the Vatican on Tuesday released the planned itinerary for Francis’ visit to Portugal for World Youth Day events from Aug. 2-6. The itinerary confirms a typically busy schedule that includes all the protocol meetings of an official state visit plus multiple events with young people and a day trip to the Marian shrine at Fatima.

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My son was born with bulging eyes and totally blind – but baffled doctors don’t know why

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A mother is appealing for answers over the mysterious condition which left her son with bulging eyes.

Kobi-Jai Morgan, who is registered blind, was born last March with bruising around his eyes and was unable to open them.

He spent six weeks in hospital, where doctors discovered the structure of his eyes had not fully developed but could not figure out why.

Despite appointments with specialists, medics have been left scratching their heads over what is causing his condition.

His mother, Morgan Nottingham, from Ystalyfera in South Wales, is now desperately searching for answers.

The 24-year-old’s labour was induced in last spring at a hospital in Bridgend, where she had a difficult delivery.

Kobi-Jai was then transferred to a neonatal intensive care unit at Singleton Hospital in Swansea and put on ventilation and a feeding tube.

As well as bruising around the eyes, he had a large hole in his heart and a floppy larynx — the tube that helps carry air to the lungs and contains vocal cords.

His unknown condition means his eyes are light-sensitive and he spends a lot of time in discomfort.

As a result, he sometimes scratches his eye and pushes his eyelids towards his eyebrows when they are irritated.

His mother administers four different types of eye drops to Kobi’s eyes every day and he wears specialist transparent glasses made by Cardiff University.

The 15-month-old has been to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London and visited private specialists — but still does not have a diagnosis.

However, tests show that he can see some light and shadows.

Ms Nottingham said: ‘We’ve come to terms with the fact that he might not have his vision for life. But we get looks as it is.

‘He has bulgy eyes and the bottom of his eyes scrape across his cheek. He doesn’t realise while he’s little but it’s really sad, bless him.’

Kobi-Jai can now tell his mother when his eyes are bothering him.

She added: ‘He cannot carry on with his eyes like that. There has to be someone out there that knows something.

‘This is completely new to us. When he starts going to school — you know what kids are like. He has children coming up to him already and saying: “Oh mammy he looks scary”. I want answers.’

Ms Nottingham called for more research and resources that could help Kobi-Jai.

She said: ‘At the moment we have found no blind support centres, schools or sensory classes locally. The closest specialist school is in Birmingham.

‘We want to bring more awareness and help and support other parents going through the same thing. We’re all learning.’

A fundraiser set up to support Kobi’s medical care has raised over £12,500.

Family friends have organised a 12-hour charity walk, five-a-side football tournament and bike ride in a bid to raise more funds to help with his care.

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US actor Danny Masterson found guilty on two rape counts

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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Masterson arrives at the Los Angeles court to learn his fate with his wife, Bijou Phillips

A jury in Los Angeles has found US actor Danny Masterson guilty on two out of three counts of rape.

The star of That ’70s Show, a TV series, faces up to 30 years in prison. He was led from court in handcuffs.

Three women, all former members of the Church of Scientology, accused the actor of sexual assault at his Hollywood home from 2001-03.

Prosecutors argued Masterson had relied on his status as a prominent Scientologist to avoid accountability.

The jury of seven women and five men was unable to reach a verdict on a third count after a week of deliberations, ending up deadlocked at 8-4.

One of his victims, who was raped in 2003, said in a statement quoted by the Associated Press: “I am experiencing a complex array of emotions – relief, exhaustion, strength, sadness – knowing that my abuser, Danny Masterson, will face accountability for his criminal behavior.”

Masterson’s wife, actress and model Bijou Phillips, wept as he was led away, CBS News reports. Other family and friends sat stone-faced.

Another jury in an earlier trial was unable to reach a verdict in December 2022.

Prosecutors chose to retry Masterson and this time the judge allowed attorneys to present new evidence that had been barred from the first trial.

Though the actor was not charged with drugging his victims, the jury heard testimony that the women had been dosed before he raped them.

Masterson was first accused of rape in 2017 during the height of the #MeToo movement. He responded by saying that he had not been charged or convicted of a crime, and that in the climate at the time “it seems as if you are presumed guilty the moment you are accused”.

Charges came after a three-year investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department. Prosecutors did not file charges in two other cases because of insufficient evidence and the statute of limitations expiring.

Throughout the trial, prosecutors argued that the Church of Scientology had helped cover up the assaults – an allegation the organisation has categorically denied.

At the time of the assaults, Masterson and all three of his accusers were Scientologists. Several of the women said it took them years to come forward because Church of Scientology officials discouraged them from reporting the rape to police.

Instead, they were forced to rely on the Church’s “internal justice system”, prosecutors said.

Scientology officials told one survivor she would be kicked out of the Church unless she signed a non-disclosure agreement and accepted a payment of $400,000 (£320,000), according to prosecutors.

Judge Charlaine Olmedo allowed both sides to discuss the dogma and practices of Scientology.

But Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson told jurors during the trial: “The Church taught his victims, ‘Rape isn’t rape, you caused this, and above all, you are never allowed to go to law enforcement.'”

Throughout the trial, the defence tried to undermine the credibility of the “Jane Does” by focusing on inconsistencies in their testimony and their supposed drive to get “revenge” against their former Church.

During closing arguments, Masterson’s defence lawyer said of the survivors: “If you are looking for motives why people are not being truthful… there are motives all over the place.”

Although the Church of Scientology was not a defendant in the case, before closing arguments began, a lawyer with ties to the Church emailed the district attorney’s office to complain about the way the Church was portrayed during the retrial.

The defence also argued that the prosecution had relied heavily on testimony about drugging because there was an absence of evidence of any force or violence.

Masterson’s lawyers tried, unsuccessfully, to have a mistrial declared.

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