An 85-year-old white man has been charged in the shooting of Ralph Yarl, a black teenager who was shot in the head after he approached the wrong home when trying to pick up his younger siblings in Kansas City, Missouri.
Andrew Lester has been charged with assault in the first degree. The charge is a felony and carries a possible punishment of life in prison, according to the New York Times. Lester was also charged with armed criminal action — that charge carries a punishment of up to 15 years in prison.
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Lester was taken into custody on April 13. He was released by police less than two hours later on April 14, according to CNN.
Officers responded to a home around 10 p.m. on April 13 after receiving reports of a shooting. Police discovered Yarl, 16, shot outside the residence by the homeowner. Yarl was “shot twice and struck in the head and arm,” said Ben Crump, renowned civil rights attorney and counsel for Yarl’s family.
On April 13, Yarl’s parents asked him to pick up his younger siblings from an address at 115th Terrace, but he accidentally went to a home on 115th Street, per investigators.
“Ralph Yarl was picking up his younger brothers when he mistakenly rang the doorbell at the wrong house. A man shot Ralph twice and now he’s in critical condition. His family needs support during this tragedy,” Crump tweeted.
A neighbor who called 911 after hearing the shots said Yarl came to her door bleeding.
“I wanted to help him, but they kept saying that we don’t know where the shooter is at,” the woman, who spoke to CNN under the condition of anonymity, said.
“I kneeled down next to him, and I said, ‘What’s your name? … Who shot you?” she said, adding that Yarl said he was “supposed to pick up my brothers.”
“We figured out then he went to the wrong street, which is no excuse for what happened,” she continued. “This is somebody’s child. I had to clean blood off of my door, off of my railing. That was someone’s child’s blood. I’m a mom. … This is not OK.”
Yarl has since been released from the hospital.
Crump and the family argue that the shooting was racially motivated. Crump said on CNN on Monday that the shooting “harkens back to Trayvon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery and so many of these other tragedies where you had citizens profile and shoot our black children and the police then let them go home and sleep in their beds at night. Unacceptable.”
A GoFundMe for Yarl raised nearly $1.7 million as of Monday afternoon. Faith Spoonmore, the creator of the fund who identified herself as Yarl’s aunt, said Yarl pulled into the driveway of the home and rang the doorbell on April 13.
“The man in the home opened the door, looked my nephew in the eye, and shot him in the head. My nephew fell to the ground, and the man shot him again. Ralph was then able to get up and run to the neighbor’s house, looking for help,” Spoonmore wrote. “Unfortunately, he had to run to 3 different homes before someone finally agreed to help him after he was told to lie on the ground with his hands up.”
Spoonmore said Yarl is a member of the Technology Student Association and Science Olympia Team, as well as a section leader in the marching band and “one of the top base clarinet players in Missouri.” Yarl’s goal is to attend Texas A&M and major in chemical engineering, according to his aunt. The funds from GoFundMe will be used for Yarl’s medical bills and therapy, as well as college expenses for Texas A&M.
Ralph’s teacher and friends describe him as “a kind soul,” “quiet,” “friendly,” “well-mannered,” “always willing to help,” “super smart,” and a “musical genius,” according to Spoonmore.
Police Chief Stacey Graves said at this point in the investigation, with “the information that we have now, it does not say that that is racially motivated. That’s still an active investigation. But as a chief of police, I do recognize the racial components of this case.”
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Graves assured community members during a news conference on Sunday that the police department is committed to the case.
“We recognize the frustration this can cause in the entire criminal justice process. The women and men of the Kansas City Police Department are working as expeditiously and as thoroughly as we can to ensure the criminal justice process continues to advance as quickly as all involved and our community deserve,” Graves said.
