The 84-year-old white man who shot 16-year-old Ralph Yarl when he rang his doorbell last week said they didn’t exchange words before he fired his revolver at the Black teen.
Yarl, a high school junior, mistakenly went to the wrong home while picking up his younger twin brothers on April 13. He arrived outside a house on Northeast 115 Street, instead of Northeast 115th Terrace and the homeowner, Andrew Lester, shot him in the head.
White man fired twice at an unarmed boy
Lester, who now faces felony charges for assault in the first degree and armed criminal action, told police he was “scared to death” due to the boy’s size.
According to reports, Lester shot Yarl in the head, and after he fell to the ground, fired again into the boy’s arm.
Lester was initially taken into custody, then released without charges on April 14 following a 24-hour hold. As anger mounted in the community, protesters gathered outside his home on Sunday, April 16. On Monday afternoon, Kansas City Police announced that they’d submitted a case file to the Clay County Prosecutors Office for their review and determination of charges.
Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson has said that “there was a racial component to this case.”
Yarl’s father says the boy was discharged from the hospital on Sunday evening. It is “nothing short of a miracle,” that he’s recovering, his attorney Ben Crump told CNN, but “he’s not out of the woods yet.”
How the attack unfolded
On the night of the shooting, Lester was reportedly in bed when the doorbell rang. Picking up his .32 caliber revolver, he went to the front door. Both the interior door and the glass exterior door were locked.
According to a probable cause statement, Lester opened the inside door and “saw a black male approximately 6 feet tall pulling on the exterior storm door handle.”
“He stated he believed someone was attempting to break into the house, and shot twice within a few seconds of opening the door,” according to the probable cause statement.
“He believed he was protecting himself from a physical confrontation and could not take the chance of the male coming in,” it continues.
According to the document, Lester said he called 911 immediately after the shooting.
Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson said that it wasn’t clear whether Yarl knocked or rang the doorbell, but he didn’t “cross the threshold” into Lester’s home. The shots Lester fired at Yarl went through the exterior glass door.
Yarl reportedly managed to run away, and attempted to seek help at neighboring homes.
A neighbor comes to the rescue
Per NBC News, James Lynch, who lives nearby, found Yarl lying unconscious on the ground.
“I thought he was dead,” he said. Lynch, 42, had apparently been getting ready for bed when he heard cries for help outside — an unusual occurrence in the quiet neighborhood, he told NBC. Looking out of the kitchen window, he saw a boy banging on the door of another house. By the time he reached Yarl, the boy was unconscious.
“No one deserves to lay there like that,” he continued. “He hasn’t even begun to live his life yet. He didn’t deserve to get shot.”
Yarl apparently came to in Lynch’s arms, and managed to tell Lynch his name and where he went to school.
