Originally Published: 20 APR 23 07:43 ET

Updated: 20 APR 23 11:21 ET

By Jamiel Lynch and Eric Levenson, CNN

(CNN) -- A manhunt is underway near Charlotte, North Carolina, for a man who reportedly shot and seriously wounded his 6-year-old neighbor and her dad when a basketball rolled into his yard.

Robert Louis Singletary, 24, should be considered armed and dangerous, Gaston County Police said. He's 6-foot-2 and about 223 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair.

The shooting began after kids had been "playing basketball, and a ball had rolled down that way and had rolled into the yard and they went to go get it," neighbor Jonathan Robertson told CNN affiliate WBTV.

"We never expected anybody would break a gun out amongst all those kids," he said. "I mean that was insane."

The 6-year-old girl said she was shot in the cheek and described to WBTV her understanding of what happened.

"I couldn't get inside in time so he shot my daddy in the back," she said.

Police would not confirm what started the Tuesday night shooting in Gastonia, citing the investigation.

The incident was another case this week alone in which young people were shot after seemingly ending up in the wrong place at the wrong time, including two teen cheerleaders mistakenly approaching someone else's vehicle in a Texas grocery store parking lot, a 16-year-old who rang the wrong doorbell in Kansas City and a 20-year-old who turned into the wrong New York driveway.

The shootings reflect the consequences of a country with more civilian guns than people, according to the Small Arms Survey, and the toxic stew of fear, paranoia and distrust that influences so many and leads to violence.

In the Gaston County shooting, the father -- identified by family as William White -- was seriously injured and remains hospitalized, police Chief Stephen Zill said Wednesday evening in a statement.

The girl and a second adult who was grazed by a bullet have been treated and released, police said. Another man also was shot at but not hurt, police said in a news release.

"He is just taking it day by day," White's mother, Debbie Wykle White, told CNN over a text message. "He's in a lot of pain and he's worried about his family with (the suspect) being on the run and him in the hospital not being able to protect his wife and kids."

For Singletary, police have secured warrants for four counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon, police said.

"I want to say to the people of Gaston County -- this sort of violence will not stand," Zill said, adding the US Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force is helping hunt for Singletary.

Singletary was charged in December with assault and kidnapping for allegedly attacking his girlfriend with a mini-sledgehammer and keeping her inside his apartment for over two hours, police said in a statement.

The charges are pending and he has not entered a plea in the case, Gaston County Superior Court clerk Jennifer Davis said. Singletary was released on a $250,000 bond on December 15, records show.

CNN has reached out to his defense attorney, Cameron Harrison, for further comment