As Ralph Yarl struggles to come to grips with being shot after going to the wrong house to pick up his younger brothers, the white Kansas City, Missouri homeowner who shot the Black 16-year-old is facing his day in court.
Andrew Lester, 84, surrendered at the Clay County Detention Center a day after being charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. He posted bond Tuesday afternoon. Some civil rights leaders urged a hate crime charge, but Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson said first-degree assault is a higher-level crime with a longer sentence — up to life in prison.“Ralph Yarl was shot because he was armed with nothing but other than his Black skin,” he said.
Merritt said the family is also angry that police held Lester for only two hours after the shooting, when they legally could have held him for 24. The shooting happened about 10 p.m. Thursday. Police Chief Stacey Graves said that Yarl’s parents asked him to pick up his twin brothers at a home on 115th Terrace.
James Lynch was the neighbor who found Yarl. He didn’t respond to an interview request, but his wife confirmed an“I heard somebody screaming, ‘Help, help, I’ve been shot!’” Lynch, who is white, told NBC. The father of three ran out and found Yarl covered in blood. Lynch checked his pulse and, when another neighbor came out with towels, helped stem the bleeding until paramedics arrived.
Merritt said the Yarl family met privately with Thompson and asked why he said the case had a racial aspect, without elaboration. The prosecutor said he was “echoing the words from law enforcement that obviously there’s a racial dynamic at play in this case,” said Merritt, who called the answer “shallow.”
Karen Allman, 61, said she had lived in Lester’s neighborhood for 32 years, although she didn’t know him or hear the shooting. She said she attended Wednesday’s rally to support Yarl and his family because “if we don’t speak out, it’s going to keep happening.”
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