Black teen shot by homeowner ‘at home and recovering’ as fundraiser surges past $3,000,000
Ralph Yarl, the teenager who was shot after ringing the doorbell at the wrong house, is now recovering at home.
The 16-year-old student from Kansas City, Missouri is now ‘home and recovering,’ his attorney Lee Merritt said on Wednesday in a Twitter post accompanying a photo of him and Yarl relaxing in a suburban backyard.
‘How the bullet in his head did not cause more extensive damage is truly a miracle,’ Merritt said.
Yarl was shot twice by a homeowner in Kansas City after he rang a doorbell on Thursday night, April 13. The teenager was picking up his twin younger brothers, but accidentally drove to the wrong house.
The first gunshot hit Yarl in the face, just above his left eye. The second hit the teenager in his arm.
‘This 16-year-old boy was shot at point-blank range in the face’ Merritt said while speaking at a rally in support of Yarl on Tuesday. ‘A bullet traveled from his gun, less than 5 feet, into his upper temple, penetrated his skull, and they scraped bullet fragments off his frontal lobe on Thursday. On Saturday, he was home playing with his dog.’
Yarl’s story has caused an outpouring of support, including from celebrities like Halle Berry, Viola Davis, and Kerry Washington.
A GoFundMe campaign started to help Yarl pay for medical treatment has since over $3.2million, with over 87,000 individuals donating.
‘He can ambulate and communicate,’ his aunt, Faith Spoonmore, said in an update to the fundraiser. ‘A true miracle considering what he survived.’
The shooter, 84-year-old Andrew Lester, was arrested after surrendering to police on Tuesday and charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action.
Lester was originally released from police custody after the shooting. Officials said he was released because suspects cannot be held for more than 24 hours, unless they are charged with a crime.
Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves said they were forced to release Lester while they were waiting for Yarl to recover enough to make an official statement to investigators.
‘We recognize the frustration this can cause in the entire criminal justice process,’ Chief Graves said on Monday. ‘We want the community to know we are committed to justice, in this case and every case, and work every day to seek that justice for all victims of all crimes.’
But Yarl’s lawyers have disputed this narrative. ‘We all believe that if the roles were reversed and this was a Black citizen who shot a 16-year-old for merely ringing his doorbell, they would have arrested him, and he wouldn’t have slept in his bed that night,’ civil rights attorney Ben Crump said, who is also representing the victim.
Although investigators initially said they did not believe race played a factor in the shooting, Clay County Prosecutor Zachary Thompson confirmed on Tuesday there was ‘a racial component’ to the incident.
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