Black teenager Ralph Yarl went to the wrong house looking for his siblings and rang the doorbell. The homeowner shot him in the head, then shot him on the ground where he fell. Yarl wasn't dead, though, and fled–though several other homeowners on the street reportedly refused to help him. Andrew Lester, 84, was finally charged with assault and armed criminal action after days of growing outrage.
There is no indication that Lester or Ralph spoke to one another before the Thursday evening shooting, Thompson said. The prosecutor added there is no evidence that the teen entered the home and preliminary evidence shows Lester opened fire on the teen through a glass door with a .32 caliber revolver.
There is no video of the encounter, Thompson said.
Family attorney Ben Crump said in a statement, "While this is certainly a step in the right direction, we will continue to fight for Ralph while he works towards a full recovery."
You get the feeling that if the kid was white or the shooter was black, we wouldn't be in this situation. So far the authorities in Clay County, Missouri, have claimed that they couldn't arrest Lester at all, then that they can't charge him with hate crimes because that would amount to double jeopardy on the assault and armed criminal conduct charges. If you get the feeling they're hoping you won't be paying attention for long, you wouldn't be alone.
Correction: Missouri, not Kansas
