In Gastonia, North Carolina, a man shot children and their parents after a basketball rolled onto his property. According to a statement from the Gaston County Sheriff’s Office, at least two people were injured. As reported by local and national media, the injured are a six-year-old girl and her father.

According to eyewitnesses, the incident happened last Tuesday in the south of the city of 80,000. According to this, some children from the neighborhood in a housing estate were playing basketball together when the ball bounced and landed on the property of a 24-year-old. When the children tried to get him back, the man started yelling at them. One of the children would then have fetched his father. He would have confronted the angry residents, which, according to reports, caused a further escalation. The resident then went in and a short time later came out with a gun. He then opened fire on his neighbors. The people then tried to get to their homes.

Not everyone was able to flee the line of fire in time: a six-year-old girl was hit in the cheek by a bullet. She was comparatively lucky. Her father, on the other hand, was hit in the back and seriously injured his lungs. He has been hospitalized ever since. As the girl’s mother told journalists, the family had nothing to do with the previous dispute over basketball. The woman is quoted as saying that they would have grilled outside, her daughter would have rode her bike.

The shooter, in turn, initially fled the scene of the crime and was then pursued by the police at high pressure as part of a public manhunt. On Thursday he turned himself in to the investigative authorities in Hillsborough County, Florida, about 900 kilometers away and was arrested. The arrest was greeted with relief in the neighborhood. The suspect had apparently only moved into his house a few weeks ago, but had already caused trouble several times. Most of the time, it is said, he would have been annoyed by children playing.

Quellen: Gaston County Sheriff’s Office, CNN, WBTV

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