Kinsley White, 6, and her parents allegedly shot by neighbour over a basketball

Kinsley White, 6, her father William White and mother Ashley Hilderbrand were all injured in the incident, which happened in the state North Carolina at about 8pm on Tuesday night, local time. The alleged gunman, 24-year-old Robert Singletary, is at large and believed to be armed.

According to the victims’ neighbours, several children were playing with the basketball when it rolled down the street and onto Mr Singletary’s property. Mr Singletary then grew angry and ran down the street firing his gun, eventually aiming for Mr White, who was running with his daughter and trying to protect her.

Mr White was seriously injured and remains in hospital, while Ms Hilderbrand was grazed by a bullet. She and Kinsley, who was hit in the cheek by bullet fragments, are back at home.

“We don’t even know the man,” Kinsley told local news station WSOC-TV. Visibly upset and worried about her father, she spoke while holding her grandfather’s hand for support.

“Why did you shoot my daddy and me?” she wondered of the gunman.

“Why did you shoot a kid’s dad?”

Ms Hilderbrand also spoke to the TV station. She said Mr White was shot in the back in his front yard while trying to draw the gunfire away from the children. She said the gunman kept shooting until he ran out of bullets, with most of his shots missing.

She also claims Mr Singletary threatened to kill Mr White and Kinsley before opening fire.

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

Kinsley’s grandmother, Carolyn Hilderbrand, said she believed the shooter “would have got me and my husband too” if he hadn’t run out of ammunition.

Police are still searching for Mr Singletary. On Wednesday, local time, they went door to door asking if anyone had seen him, and performed a tactical search of his home. They don’t know whether he is on foot or moving using a vehicle.

Mr Singletary is out on bond for a separate incident, in which he’s accused of having hit his 21-year-old girlfriend in the head with a mini-sledgehammer. He’s now been charged with four counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.

“Please turn yourself in. There was no sense in what you did,” Ms Hilderbrand said.