Kansas City Homeowner Is Charged In Shooting Of Black Teen
By: HuffPost
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Dried egg is seen Monday on the front of a house in Kansas City, Missouri, where 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot after he went to the wrong address to pick up his younger brothers.Charlie Riedel/Associated Press
Authorities have announced charges against a Kansas City, Missouri, man accused of shooting a 16-year-old Black teen who had mistakenly gone to the man's home to pick up his younger siblings.
Clay County Prosecutor Zachary Thompson said at a Monday news conference that he's filed two felony counts against 85-year-old Andrew Lester: assault in the first degree and armed criminal action. The announcement came less than an hour after Kansas City police said they submitted their investigation to the prosecutor's office for review.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Lester.
Lester twice shot Yarl in the head and arm on Thursday night after the high school junior rang his doorbell, mistakenly thinking he was at the house where he was supposed to pick up his twin younger brothers.
Thompson said he thinks there "was a racial component" in the shooting.
Yarl's family has retained famed civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who said before the news conference that it "is inescapable not to acknowledge the racial dynamics at play."
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said Ralph Yarl was killed. He was seriously wounded in the shooting.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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What happened? Hmmm. A black teenager rang the doorbell of an 85 year old white man, who shot him in the head, probably under the mistaken belief there would be no other possible reason for a black person to ring his doorbell other than to rob or kill him.
Good guy with a gun - lol.
How are you going to blame this on Trump?
Who do you blame it on, the kid ?
Can't get the 'Orange Troll' out of your thoughts?
The idiot who pulled the trigger, not trump, not the inanimate object, the actual shooter, some fucking morons try to blame trump for thugs trashing Chicago over the weekend.
Another ignorant comment.
You finally got something right.
Don’t be jealous, you’ll get one eventually.
85 year old Andrew Lester has probably lived his life in a state of 'conditioned fear'. Conditioned against 'the other'. Bet you 1,000 to 1 Lester votes GOP.
From what I read, Ralph Yarl is an outstanding young man. I hope he makes a swift and complete recovery. I also hope that justice is served.
It is so early in this story. They can’t even get straight the condition of the kid. We need facts before we assume some racist old white fart shot a kid just for being black. Maybe he did, and that would be horrible, but we just don’t know what happened, yet.
He's being arrested.
This black teenager is a very clean cut kid. I saw a picture of him playing an instrument in the school orchestra. He rang the doorbell thinking he was at the house where his two younger brothers were visiting with another kid, in order to drive them home. He was on the wrong street, although the two addresses were similar.
Sure its possible that the black teenager did something to make the old man feel threatened, but seems quite unlikely. Its much more likely the old man thinks black people are home invaders.
That doesn’t tell us everything we might need to know. Why have trials, then?
Kid Rock and Ted Nugent play instruments. They probably did in school, too. Anyone can take a nice photo. Doesn’t mean he does the right thing in all circumstances.
Based on what, exactly? All you know about the shooter is that he’s old and white. And all you’re even thinking about is that he’s white. This dude is 85. Maybe he’s senile. Maybe a loud banging noise at the door freaked him out and he went into panic mode.
I’m not saying he’s not racist. He may well be. I’m saying we don’t yet know.
Does he shoot at every white person that comes to his door?
Of course he is innocent until proven guilty.
The law enforcement official who announced the arrest said it appeared to be a racial incident.
If so, the media hasn't reported it.
Maybe also an age incident.
Same shit happened in upstate New York on Saturday. Old man with a gun. But this time, the victim was a white girl.
Upstate NY woman, 20, fatally shot after turning down wrong driveway
So again, I’m not saying it’s impossible that the old man who shot the black kid was racially motivated. I’m just saying it’s also possible there was something else going on, and we just don’t know yet. But some people are in a hurry to make sure we all think it’s racism.
Why might this matter? Because while we have racism in this country, we also have a gun problem in this country. Too many people are quick to use the guns they have instead of looking for a way not to use them. But if we only approach this as a race problem, we won’t get to the gun problem.