White man, 84, charged for shooting black teen Ralph Yarl who went to wrong house
- Ralph Yarl, 16, is recovering after he was shot twice and struck in the head by a white man last week in Kansas City
- Yarl had knocked on the door at the wrong address, in a state where ‘stand-your-ground’ laws apply
Prosecutors charged an 84-year-old white Kansas City man with two felonies on Monday in the shooting of a black teenager who was wounded after walking up to the wrong house when going to pick up his younger twin brothers.
Andrew Lester was charged with first-degree assault, which could bring a sentence of life in prison, and armed criminal action for shooting Ralph Yarl, 16, on the doorstep of his suburban home around 10pm last Thursday, the prosecutor said.
“I can tell you there was a racial component to the case,” Clay County prosecutor Zachary Thompson told a news conference, without providing further details.
Lester fired two shots through a glass door from a .32-calibre revolver, the prosecutor said. Yarl, who was struck in the head and an arm, did not cross the threshold, Thompson said, adding it did not appear any words were exchanged in the encounter.
But Yarl told police in an interview at the hospital where he was treated that the man told him: “Don’t come around here,” local media reported, citing court documents.
