Man officially charged in Ralph Yarl shooting

The man who shot Kansas City, Mo. teenager Robert Yarl has been formally charged by Clay County prosecuting attorney Zach Thompson with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old white man, shot Yarl, a 16-year-old who is Black, after the former came to his door by mistake — he was trying to pick up his siblings from a nearby home and got the wrong address. 

“He parked in the driveway, went up to the door and rang the doorbell,” explained Faith Spoonmore, Yarl’s aunt, in a social media post. “The man inside opened up the door and shot him in the head through the glass door. When Raphael was on the ground, he shot him again.”

Yarl was severely injured after the shooting, but is in stable condition and recovering at his family’s home. Yarl initially struggled to find help: He went knocked on three different doors in the neighborhood before James Lynch, a 42-year-old and father of three, came to his aid. 

Investigators are still attempting to elucidate the exact nature of the crime and have not released many details. It’s not known how many times Yarl was shot, whether Lester called 911 after the shooting or whether or not the shooting was racially motivated — though Yarl’s defense team has suggested it was and should be charged as a hate crime.

“Ralph Yarl was shot because he was armed with nothing but other than his Black skin,” said Lee Merrit, a civil rights lawyer and the Yarl family’s attorney.