Authorities reported that the 84-year-old White man accused of shooting a Black adolescent who rang his doorbell in Kansas City turned himself in on Tuesday and was later released on bail.
Andrew Lester, who is charged with two felonies for the April 13 shooting of Ralph Yarl – first-degree assault and armed criminal action – will be arraigned on Wednesday afternoon, according to Yarl family counsel Lee Merritt. CNN has reached out to the appropriate authorities for confirmation.
Tuesday, Lester turned himself in at a detention centre and was released on parole hours later. Sarah Boyd, a spokesperson for the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, stated that the terms of his $200,000 bond prohibit him from possessing any form of weapon and prohibit him from having direct or indirect contact with Yarl and his family.
Ralph, 16 years old, was shot in the head and arm after he went to the incorrect address to collect up his siblings and was subsequently shot. According to his family, he has been discharged from the hospital but confronts a difficult road to recovery.
Lester told police that he and the adolescent did not speak before he shot him through a locked glass door.
CNN was unable to contact the proprietor. CNN has not yet determined whether Lester has legal representation.
The criminal charges have provided some solace to Ralph’s family, but Ralph’s recovery and the pursuit of justice still have a long way to go, his aunt Faith Spoonmore told CNN.
Tuesday, Spoonmore stated, “It’s not as easy as turning a page.” It is slightly better that he will presumably receive a portion of what he deserves.
However, questions persist as to why Lester was initially detained and then released a few hours after the shooting on April 13.
“I share the outrage and concern of many by asking why,” Mayor of Kansas City Quinton Lucas told CNN.
“In Missouri, a 24-hour delay is permitted. Evidently, they interrogated the suspect for two or three hours. He was able to return home that night.”
According to the probable cause document obtained by CNN, Lester reported to police that he fired immediately after answering the doorbell when he observed Ralph tugging on an exterior door handle.
According to the document, Lester believed Ralph was attempting to enter into the residence and was “terrified” of him due to his size.
Just before 10 p.m. that night, officers responded to reports of a gunshot. When they arrived, Ralph was discovered injured in the street.
Ralph, a school band director who plays the bass clarinet, sustained gunshot wounds to the cranium and arm. According to the document, Ralph told police he did not tug on the door while he was hospitalised.
Ralph’s discharge from the hospital was “nothing short of a miracle,” his attorney Ben Crump told CNN on Monday. However, “he’s not out of the woods just yet.”
The shooting sparked protests in Kansas City and evoked memories of Trayvon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery, two young Black men killed by attackers who subsequently claimed self-defense.
They marched through Kansas City chanting “Justice for Ralph” and demanding the shooter’s arrest.
Additionally, the shooting occurred days before a 20-year-old woman was fatally shot in upstate New York after she and three others turned into the incorrect driveway.
While Ralph’s attorneys assert that their client never presented a threat to his assailant, it is unknown whether Missouri’s “stand your ground” law will be cited in Lester’s defence case.
“Stand your ground” laws enable people to respond to threats or force in any location where they have the legal right to be without fear of criminal prosecution.
The aunt of Ralph disputed the notion that her nephew’s “size” posed a threat.
“I truly do not comprehend how,” Spoonmore said. “I doubt Ralph is even 170 pounds. Ralph is less than six feet tall.”
She stated that she is on a mission to assist her nephew obtain justice.
Spoonmore stated, “I want justice to appear uniform in all cases.” “I want justice to look the same.”
There is a racial element to this case,
The mayor stated that he believes the gunman targeted Ralph based on his race.“This boy was shot because he was Black,” Lucas explained.
Zachary Thompson, the prosecutor for Clay County, stated, “There was a racial component to this case,” but did not elaborate.
Lester was taken into custody on the night of the shooting and released less than two hours later, two representatives from the detention branch of the Kansas City Police Department told CNN previously.
Thompson stated that Lester was released because police recognised the need for further investigation.
Attorney Crump questioned the length of Lester’s detention.
“No one can assure us if the roles were reversed and a black man shot a 16-year-old white boy for simply ringing his doorbell, he would not have been arrested. “I mean, this citizen went home and slept in his bed after shooting a young Black boy in the head,” Crump said on CNN.
“He rang only the doorbell. “That was it,” the adolescent’s lawyer stated. “And the homeowner shoots through the door, striking him in the head, before shooting him again.”
The mayor stated that he was unaware of the case details until several days after the incident. And while he believes that race played a factor in the shooting, he acknowledged the work of police officers, including White officers, who assisted prosecutors in filing charges against Lester.
“We did have officers, White officers for what it’s worth, who put in a great deal of effort to get this case file to the prosecutor,” Lucas stated.
However, to imply that race is not a factor in this situation would be to bury one’s head in the sand.
How the attack took place
Lester was lying in bed prior to the gunshot when he heard the doorbell and picked up his.a 32-caliber revolver, according to a statement of probable cause.He then proceeded to the front entrance of his residence, which consists of an interior door and a glass exterior door that were both locked.
Lester opened the interior door and “saw a black male approximately 6 feet tall pulling on the exterior storm door handle,” he reported to police.
The probable cause statement reads, “He stated he believed someone was attempting to break into the home and fired twice within a few seconds of opening the door.”
The document states, “He believed he was protecting himself from a physical confrontation and could not risk the male entering.”
According to the document, Lester reported calling 911 immediately after the gunshot.
According to the document, Ralph told police that his mother had asked him to pick up his siblings at 1100 NE 115th Street. However, the actual address where they were staying was 1100 NE 115th Terrace.
The document states that when Ralph arrived at the 115th Street residence, he rang the doorbell and waited for a while before a man opened the door and shot him in the head, causing him to collapse.
Ralph told police that while the adolescent was still on the ground, the man fired again, striking him in the arm.
Ralph stated that he stood up and fled to avoid being shot, and he heard the individual say, “Don’t come around here,” according to the document. He then went to numerous nearby residences to request assistance and instruct residents to call the police.
According to the probable cause document, the teen told police he did not tug on the door.
According to the document, responding officers also discovered broken storm door glass and blood on the front veranda and driveway of Lester’s residence.
According to a GoFundMe page created by Ralph’s aunt, the teen “had to run to three different homes before someone agreed to help him after he was told to lie on the ground with his hands up.”
A neighbour who requested anonymity told CNN she called 911 when Ralph arrived at her door haemorrhaging.
As the location of the shooter was unknown at the time, the emergency operator advised her to remain inside her residence for her safety. She stated that she initially complied and then moved outside with towels to help stop the bleeding.
“This is an individual’s offspring. I had to remove blood from my door and balustrade. That was the blood of a child,” she said. “As a mother, this is unacceptable.”
You may not profile and kill our offspring.
Ralph is still traumatised from the ordeal, but his family is optimistic about his recovery because he is young and healthy, according to Crump.
“He and his family are ecstatic that he is still alive after being shot in the head,” CNN’s Benjamin Crump said.
Merritt stated on Tuesday that the first bullet penetrated Yarl’s cranium after travelling less than five feet into his upper temple.
On Thursday, projectile fragments were removed from his frontal lobe. Saturday he was at home interacting with his dog, according to Merritt.
He stated that God was warning the community and its leaders that business as usual cannot continue.
“In fact, that was a marvel. The query that must be answered is, “What are we to learn from that miracle?”
Ralph, a section captain in a marching band who frequently played an instrument, was eagerly anticipating his high school graduation.”Life appears very different now. Even though he is doing well physiologically, he has a long mental and emotional journey ahead of him. “The trauma he must endure and survive is incomprehensible,” the aunt wrote in the fundraising letter.
By Monday evening, the GoFundMe page created to assist the family with medical expenses had received more than $2 million in donations.
Crump compared Ralph’s gunshot to the shootings of Martin, 17, and Arbery, 25, in Florida and Georgia, respectively.
“We continue to battle for”
“Say you can’t profile our children and shoot them just because you have this’stand your ground’ law,” Crump said. “Unacceptable.”
Monday, Merritt told CNN that the “stand your ground” policy would not apply to Ralph’s case.
“The Missouri stand your ground laws are completely inapplicable to this case,” Merritt stated, “because there has been no indication from the suspect, the victim, or law enforcement that Ralph Yarl, at the age of 16, ever posed a threat to this shooter.”
The President converses with an adolescent and his or her mother.
CNN was informed by a White House official that President Joe Biden spoke with Ralph and his mother, Cleo Nagbe, via telephone on Monday evening.
Biden remarked that Ralph is “fortunate” to have a mother who is not only a nurse but also a physical therapist.
Biden “lightheartedly attempted to convince him that (the president’s alma mater) University of Delaware was a much better option,” according to a White House official.
The official stated that the president also committed to continuing his fight against gun violence.According to his GoFundMe page, he visited West Africa before beginning college.
