'Buckets of tears': Ralph Yarl devastated after being shot for ringing wrong doorbell

A Black teenager who was shot in the head by a white homeowner for mistakenly ringing his doorbell is recovering from his traumatic wounds and struggling to come to grips with what happened.

Ralph Yarl sustained gunshot wounds to his upper right arm and left frontal lobe above his eye, according to his mother, who said the bullet in his head was not removed for nearly 12 hours after an elderly man shot him when he mistakenly went to the wrong address to pick up his younger twin brothers, reported the Associated Press.

“[He is] able to communicate mostly when he feels like it, but mostly he just sits there and stares, and the buckets of tears just rolls down his eyes," said his mother, Cleo Nagbe. “You can see that he is just replaying the situation over and over again, and that just doesn’t stop my tears either."

Nagbe said "residual effect" of the shooting would remain with her son "for quite a while," and 84-year-old Andrew Lester, who admits he shot the boy on his front porch, could face up to life in prison after he surrendered on charges of first-degree assault and armed criminal action.

“What the prosecutor did was charge (Lester) with the highest degree of felony they could charge him with,” said Washington University School of Law professor Peter Joy, who said the Missouri's hate law was used only to enhance lower-level charges and could even result in a lesser sentence.

However, experts say the state's Stand Your Ground law would be a difficult hurdle for prosecutors to overcome, despite the strength of their case.

“The defendant was in his house and has expressed that he was in fear,” said St. Louis defense attorney Nina McDonnell.