An elderly white man is facing felony charges in the US state of Missouri after it was claimed that he shot and seriously injured a Black teenager who accidently rang his doorbell.
Last Thursday night, while attempting to pick up his twin brothers from a friend’s house nearby, Ralph Yarl, 16, rang the wrong doorbell and was shot twice, once in the head. He was critically injured as a result.
After it was reported that the homeowner had been freed without being charged after spending 24 hours in custody, outrage over the issue continued to grow throughout the weekend.
However, Clay County prosecutor Zachary Thompson revealed on Monday that the homeowner, Andrew Lester, had been accused of first-degree assault and armed criminal action.
Bail for Lester, whose age was variously given as 84 and 85 by prosecutors and US media, was set at $200,000.
“To pretend that race is not a part of this whole situation would be to have your head in the sand,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas told CNN Tuesday. “This boy was shot because he was existing while black.”
President Joe Biden called Yarl on the phone Monday night, the White House reported, “and shared his hope for a swift recovery.”
On a GoFundMe page, Yarl’s aunt, Faith Spoonmoore, said that her nephew was a talented student who had aspirations of majoring in chemical engineering. The charity event had raised more than $2.8 million for Yarl as of Tuesday morning.
In the United States, a nation of around 330 million people with an estimated 400 million guns, deadly shootings occur frequently.
But because of the nation’s ongoing struggle with a long history of impunity for violence against African Americans, Yarl’s case has drawn particular attention.
At a press conference on Sunday night, Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves stated that the investigation was still ongoing even though the information at the moment “does not say that it’s racially motivated.”
“But as a chief of police, I do recognize the racial components of this case. I do recognize and understand the community’s concern.”
Charges were also filed Monday in a similar case in New York state, where a 20-year-old woman was shot dead.
Police in New York State said Kaylin Gillis had been fatally shot by a homeowner on Saturday night when she showed up with three others at the wrong address when trying to find a friend’s house.
“While they were leaving the residence after they determined that they were at the wrong house, the subject came out on his porch for whatever reason and fired two shots, one of which struck the vehicle that Kaylin was in,” said Jeffrey Murphy, the sheriff of Washington County, where the shooting took place.
The homeowner identified as the person who fired the shots, 65-year-old Kevin Monahan, was arrested Monday and charged with second-degree murder, according to the sheriff’s office.