Andrew Lester from Kansas City was charged Tuesday with shooting Ralph Yarl, a Black 16-year-old kid who rang his doorbell. He’s facing two felony charges — no, Lester, not Yarl, though we can see why you might be confused — for assault in the first degree and armed criminal action.
Lester, 84, was originally in custody for just two hours. He told Kansas City police that he was lying in bed when he heard the doorbell ring so he grabbed his .32 caliber revolver. (Presumably he’s on Door Dash’s “Do Not Deliver” list.) He said he went to the front entrance, which has both an interior door and a glass exterior door. Both doors were locked, but when Lester opened the interior door, he “saw a black male approximately 6 feet tall pulling on the exterior storm door handle.”
He said he was “scared to death” by the big and imposing Black kid.
To non-racist eyes, Yarl probably looks like your average gawky teen. He certainly isn’t built like a 26-year-old playing a 16-year-old in a CW drama. But Black people have been scaring white people ever since they brought us over here.
PREVIOUSLY:
White Guy Shoots Black Kid In The Head Because He Rang His Doorbell. This Is America.
Only A Sick Culture Worships Guns
“He stated he believed someone was attempting to break into the house, and shot twice within a few seconds of opening the door,” the probable cause statement reads.
“He believed he was protecting himself from a physical confrontation and could not take the chance of the male coming in,” the document reads.
Lester said he immediately called 911 after the shooting, according to the document.
Missouri has a Republican-approved “stand your ground” law that removes the duty to retreat from someone who claims they believed they were in immediate danger. Combined with the standard “castle doctrine,” this would’ve put a high bar on charging Lester, but unlike Travyon Martin, Ralph Yarl is still alive. His shooter doesn’t have the last word.
Family attorney Benjamin Crump noted that it’s “nothing short of a miracle” that Yarl is expected to recover from his severe injuries and was discharged from the hospital. Although he’s “not out of the woods yet” — layman’s terms for the more medically precise “he was shot in the fucking head!” — Yarl was conscious and sufficiently aware to tell the detective who visited him at the hospital Friday his side of the story, the side that more closely resembles reality.
Yarl said he’d pressed the doorbell and waited, like someone with manners who obviously wasn’t attempting to break into Lester’s ugly-ass house. The detective wrote in his report, “[Yarl] stated the male inside took a long time but finally opened the door holding a firearm. He stated he was immediately shot in the head and fell to the ground.”
Lester shot Yarl in the left forehead and right arm, but the second shot was from behind, when it was obvious that a wounded Yarl was retreating and no longer a threat.
When announcing the charges against Lester Monday night, Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson said there’s no evidence that Yarl entered Lester’s house or that the two even spoke to each other before Lester shot him. Yarl summoned the strength to get up and run away before he was shot again, and he heard Lester say, “Don’t come around here!” He went to multiple houses asking for help.
“I can tell you there was a racial component to this case,” Thompson said, without elaborating further. However, this hardly surprises us. Lester still wasn’t in custody Monday night but a warrant was issued for his arrest.
It’s unclear if Lester actually did call 911 or if that’s just more lies, but a neighbor, who asked not to be identified, told CNN she called 911 after a bleeding Yarl showed up at her door. The 911 operator originally told her to stay inside for her own safety, as it was unclear where the shooter was. However, she eventually went outside with towels to help stop the bleeding.
“This is somebody’s child. I had to clean blood off of my door, off of my railing. That was someone’s child’s blood,” she said. “I’m a mom … this is not OK.”
No, it’s not.
[CNN]
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