Ralph Yarl Shooting continues outrage

On April 13, sixteen-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot in Kansas City, Missouri, after accidentally going to the wrong house.

The African American teen was tasked with picking up his siblings that night, but mixed up the street addresses and mistakenly approached eighty-four-year-old Andrew Lester’s home.

On “CBS Mornings,” Cleo Nagbe, Yarl’s mother said, “He got a couple of bullets in his body, instead of a couple of twins coming up, out and giving him a hug.”

Yarl claims to have rung the doorbell and waited a while before Lester opened the door and shot him. Yarl was shot once in the head and once in the arm.

Lester believed that someone was trying to break into his home and stated that he, “saw a black male approximately 6 feet tall pulling on the exterior storm door handle,” according to police. 

However, Yarl stands at only five feet, eight inches and claims that he did not reach for the door, according to the probable cause statement involving the case. Lester stated that he did not exchange any words with Yarl before shooting at him through a locked glass door.

Police responded and arrived before 10 p.m. and found Yarl wounded on the street after going to neighbors for help. Yarl was hospitalized and was released only a few days later, and still has a long recovery to make mentally and physically, according to his family. 

His recovery and survival are described as a “miracle,” as the boy took a shot to the head.

From CNN, Shuan King, spokesperson for the family and activist wrote in a post saying that, “He’s home and looks great. Ralph is a WALKING MIRACLE with a head of steel.”

“Had the bullet hit his head a fraction of an inch in any other direction he would probably be dead right now,” The post continued. 

Fundraisers, like GoFundMe, have raised over 3 million dollars so far in efforts to pay for medical bills and other fees for the Yarl family, as people across the country respond to the event.

Controversy with Lester following the event have sparked much conversation with Missouri and its laws. Lester was taken into custody, but was released less than two hours later, as more investigated work needed to be done at that time.

Lester pleaded not guilty to the charges of assault in the first degree and armed criminal action. He is out on a $200,000 bond but is due back in court on June 1.

The state of Missouri has “Stand Your Ground” laws, which means that the law allows residents to respond to threats and force without fear of prosecution in places the person has a right to be, like in their home. 

However, the “self-defense protection” laws, are being brought into question following the night of April 13, and a shooting a few miles away on April 15, where twenty-year-old Kaylin Gillis was killed after pulling into a wrong driveway looking for a friend’s house. 

Many protests and media stands have sparked up throughout the country following these events as people continue to argue gun safety and racial discrimination. 

KSN-TV reported on the protests.

Urban Leauge CEO Gwen Grant said, “We believe that this was a race and hate-motivated crime, and we want the federal government, the FBI, to conduct a hate crime investigation.”

Questions on how much race came into play involving the events with Yarl are still in the air as investigations continue and more details are revealed.