Missouri man faces charges in shooting of Black 16-year-old
Teen was injured after ringing wrong doorbell
The errand that nearly cost Ralph Yarl his life was the sort of routine one that falls to older brothers everywhere.
Yarl, a Black 16-year-old in Kansas City, Mo., had been sent to pick up his younger twin brothers at a friend’s house on Thursday evening, his family later said. But he mixed up the address, finding himself in front of a house on Northeast 115 Street, instead of Northeast 115th Terrace.
The white man who answered the door there shot him in the head and again in the arm after he fell, according to prosecutors. Somehow, Yarl made his way, bleeding, to another nearby house. There, he was told to lie on the ground while someone called for help, his family said.
The homeowner who shot him, Andrew D. Lester, 85, was taken into custody by police for 24 hours, then released without charges Friday. Over the weekend, as Yarl lay critically injured in a hospital, anger began to spread in the community. Protesters marched on Lester’s home Sunday, while Kansas City police Chief Stacey Graves held a news conference to acknowledge the public frustration.
As pressure mounted Monday afternoon, police said in a statement it had submitted the case file on the shooting to the Clay County prosecuting attorney’s office. A few hours later, Zachary Thompson, the prosecutor, announced that Lester had been charged, saying what many already believed: “There was a racial component to the case.”
Thompson said Lester had been charged with first-degree assault, a class-A felony, and could face life in prison if convicted. Lester also was charged with armed criminal action, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, Thompson said.
It was not clear if the teenager knocked on Lester’s door or rang the doorbell, but he did not “cross the threshold” into the man’s home, Thompson said. A probable cause statement, he added, did not indicate that “any words were exchanged.”
“We understand how frustrating this has been but I can assure you that the criminal justice system is working, and will continue to work,” Thompson said.
Lester was not in custody when the charges were announced. Thompson said at the news conference that a warrant had been issued for his arrest, and that his bail had been set at $200,000.
“I don’t have any information regarding his specific whereabouts,” he added, “but it’s my understanding law enforcement is aware of the situation and taking all appropriate action.”
Mayor Quinton Lucas of Kansas City said in an interview before the charges were announced Monday that he was “heartbroken and angry about the situation that we find ourselves in.”
“You’ve heard about driving while Black,” said Lucas, who is Black. “You’ve heard about all the other issues that Black people confront in life. Can you not knock on the door while Black? It’s almost like you can’t exist.”
Later Monday Lucas said on Twitter that the charges against Lester were a “first step towards justice for Ralph Yarl.”
Earlier Monday, Lucas said on Twitter that he had spoken with Yarl’s mother and had “shared with her my personal commitment to ensuring we find justice for her son, her family, and all hurting now in our City.” Before the charges were announced, most of the details about the shooting had come from family members and their lawyers, Ben Crump and S. Lee Merritt. “There can be no excuse for the release of this armed and dangerous suspect after admitting to shooting an unarmed, nonthreatening and defenseless teenager that rang his doorbell,” the lawyers wrote in a joint statement on Sunday.
Crump linked to a fund-raising page started by Yarl’s aunt, Faith Spoonmore, who wrote that her nephew, a high school junior, did not have his phone with him when he went to get his brothers. “He mistakenly went to the wrong house, one block away from the house where his siblings were,” she wrote. The Kansas City Star and other local media outlets noted the confusion between the parallel streets with similar names.
She said her nephew pulled into the driveway and rang the doorbell and that the man who came to the door shot Yarl in the head. Police did not describe his injuries in detail.
“My nephew fell to the ground, and the man shot him again,” Spoonmore wrote. “Ralph was then able to get up and run to the neighbor’s house, looking for help. Unfortunately, he had to run to three different homes before someone finally agreed to help him after he was told to lie on the ground with his hands up.”
Graves said Sunday the police were called to the scene at about 10 p.m.
Lester was released after being held for the maximum 24hour period allowed without charges under state law in a felony investigation, the chief said at the news conference.
Graves said the teenager was expected to give a formal statement to investigators when his injuries allow. She also said that there was a “potential” self-defense or “stand your ground” element that investigators were examining. She did not say how many times the teenager had been shot. Lucas said that Missouri’s “stand your ground” law, which was adopted in 2016, should not apply in this case.