Girl Shot After Ball Rolled Into Yard: 'No Place Is Truly Safe'

The shooting of 16-year-old Ralph Yarl last week by 84-year-old Andrew Lester—who said he was "scared to death" of the Missouri teen when he showed up at Lester's home in error to pick up his younger brothers—was followed soon after by the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis for turning down the wrong driveway in upstate New York; the shooting of two cheerleaders after one of them tried to get into the wrong car in a Texas parking lot; and, most recently, the shooting of a North Carolina 6-year-old and her parents after a ball accidentally rolled into a neighbor's yard. "Shot for making a mistake" is how NBC News is framing the latest round of gun violence against young people brought on by "banal and seemingly harmless occurrences" that could happen to any one of us. More on the latest:

• The most recent case out of North Carolina took place Tuesday night, when children playing basketball in the street in a neighborhood south of Gastonia saw their ball roll into a neighbor's yard, per WSOC. Witnesses say 24-year-old Robert Singletary, who's now on the run, came out shooting, hitting 6-year-old Kinsley White, father William White, and mother Ashley Hilderbrand, who said the suspect kept shooting until he was out of bullets. "He looked at my husband and my daughter and told them, 'I'm going to kill you,'" Hilderbrand says. She suffered a graze wound from a bullet and has been treated and released from the hospital. Kinsley has stitches in her cheek from bullet fragments, and White, the most seriously injured, remains hospitalized. "I just hope my daddy [is] OK," Kinsley tells Queen City News.
• NBC notes that America is no stranger to mass shootings in everyday places like movie theaters, churches, supermarkets, and schools. But what seems to set the past week apart is the "[deepening of] a gnawing sense that no place is truly safe," and that shootings can happen for the most innocuous reasons. "The truth is that we are living in a nation that is increasingly shooting first and asking questions later," says John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. "I think people are outraged and sickened by it. ...I think parents are asking: Is my child next?"

• The New York Times compares the Yarl and Gillis cases—incidents that took place "hundreds of miles" apart over "wrong turns." The story looks at both suspects. Kevin Monahan, 65, charged with murder in the Gillis case, is described as being a "sometimes surly character who ... largely kept to himself," while neighbors say Lester "spent considerable time at home in a living room chair, watching conservative news programs at high volume." His ex-wife, who describes their 14-year marriage as "troubled," isn't that surprised he's accused of shooting someone. "I was always scared of him," she says.
• Missouri officials have said there was a "racial component" in the Yarl case, in which Lester said he was "scared to death" to see Yarl at his door. The Washington Post notes that phenomenon is nothing new for Black boys: In multiple studies, participants have "tended to see Black men as bigger and stronger than they actually were, and gave Black children the attributes of adults. The result is that they are seen as more dangerous," researchers say.

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• The Times also takes a closer look at "stand your ground" laws in place in about 30 states. One important focus is the so-called castle doctrine, "established through centuries of precedent," and "rooted in the idea that a person's home is their castle, and that they have a right to protect themselves while they are in it." Stand-your-ground laws go beyond that, and critics worry they're helping to spur too much violence.
• Despite the shocking nature of all four shootings, especially headline-drawing because they've all involved young people, Vanderbilt University psychiatrist Jonathan Metzl says this type of gun violence isn't that rare. Instead, "the shootings have drawn attention because they are so extreme and in such quick succession," notes the AP.
• That not-uncommon theme doesn't negate the seriousness of such shootings, which NBC attributes in part to "the toxic brew of paranoia, distrust, and suspicion that poisons so many of our day-to-day interactions—and sometimes leads to bloodshed." Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who's fought vigorously for gun safety legislation, spoke about the issue on Wednesday. "We are becoming a heavily armed nation so fearful and angry and hair-trigger anxious that gun murders are now just the way in which we work out our frustrations," he said on the Senate floor. "This is a dystopia, and ... it's a dystopia that we've chosen for ourselves."

(More shootings stories.)