This is one of those very American scare or kill cases. This time, luckily, it seems that he is scared.
As so many teenagers do, Ralp Yarl, a 16-year-old African-American from Kansas City, Missouri, went to pick up his eleven-year-old twin brothers from a friend's house. He took the wrong address. Instead of going to 115 Northeast Terrace he went to 115 Northeast Street. He rang the bell. He opened the door for him by a white man who shot him twice, one that hit him in the head and, already on the ground, another in his arm.
He tried to call for help. Other neighbors told him to lie down while they treated him (or mistrusted him), and called the police to claim medical emergencies.
This event once again revives the law that allows self-defense with the use of force, amid racial tensions and the dispute over gun violence. This happened last Thursday. The owner of the house, identified as Andrew Lester, 85, was arrested, but after two hours he was allowed to leave while waiting to close the file, although everything indicated that they were going to exonerate him. So no charges were brought against him.
Once this issue was disclosed on social networks, and given the impunity towards the aggressor, there were numerous protests on the internet and in the city of Missouri itself, with demonstrations this Sunday in front of the house where the event occurred. The local police chief, Stacey Graves, acknowledged understanding the public disenchantment.
The scandal in public opinion only increased this Monday at the national level. The Police Department issued a statement in which it reported that it had forwarded the proceedings to the Clay County District Attorney's Office.
Shortly after it was learned that Yarl was leaving the hospital to continue his recovery at home (his mother is a nurse), Zachary Thompson, chief county attorney, announced that Lester had been charged with felony assault and armed criminal action, crimes that, In the event of being convicted, they would imply life imprisonment and up to fifteen years in prison, respectively.
"There is a racial component in this case," Thompson stressed at a press conference. In his appearance, he noted that it was not clear if Yarl had rung the doorbell or knocked on the door, but "in no case did he cross the threshold" into the house. “We understand how frustrating this has been, but I can guarantee that the criminal justice system is working and will continue to work,” he stressed.
Lester was not in custody Monday. He was set on $200,000 bail. He confessed to the police, as stated in the complaint, that shooting was the last thing he wanted to do, but that he was afraid for his life due to "the size of the boy" and his inability to defend himself due to his age. he.
He said that he had just gotten into bed and when he heard the knock on his door, he picked up his Smith
According to the version of the teenager's family, the man opened the door, looked him in the eye and said: "Don't you think of coming back here." And he fired.
After calling for help, a neighbor named James Lynch, a 42-year-old white man, told NBC that he found the teenager unconscious, bathed in blood. "I thought he was dead," he said. "No one deserves to die like this, he did not deserve to be shot," he insisted.
At that time, around ten o'clock at night, Lynch, the father of three children, was preparing to go to sleep when he heard shots. Peering over the ledge he saw a young man staggering. He ran out, took his hand, saw that he had a pulse, while another neighbor came with towels to stop the bleeding.
"No child should live in fear of being shot for ringing the wrong doorbell," US Vice President Kamala Harris tweeted.
Before the charges were announced, lawyers representing the victim's family, Ben Crump and S. Lee Merritt, stressed in a statement that "there can be no excuse for releasing an armed man and dangerous suspect after to admit that he shot an unarmed, nonviolent, and incapable teenager simply for ringing his doorbell.”
Crump linked his statement to a fundraising page of Faith Spoonmore, Yarl's aunt. There he explains that his nephew, after receiving bullet wounds, had to go to three different houses before someone helped her and called the police, although she previously ordered her to lie on the ground and raise her hands. The version of him differs from the previous one of the good neighbor.
“You hear these stories of racism in the United States and you hope that this happens a little far away, that it never touches your family, but, God, the people of this country are sick. It's hard to understand this amount of hate," Spoonmore said.
Lawyer Merritt explained that the police had the boy's statement describing how he rang the bell, waited quietly for three to five minutes, and then saw the door open. The owner yelled that he didn't want to see him again and opened fire from behind another glass door. "There is no justification for this," the lawyer remarked.
Yarl, a high school senior at Staley High School, a lover of science, and a member of the high school marching band, is fortunate enough to recover from a scare to death.
