UPDATE: 6:40 p.m. ET: CNN reports the shooter, identified as 85-year-old white man Andrew Lester, will face two felony counts: assault in the first degree and armed criminal action. Clay County attorney Zachary Thompson commented, “I can tell you there was a racial component to this case.” The shooter was not yet in custody when charges were announced.
ORIGINAL STORY: Various bits of information have been released relating to the shooting of Ralph Yarl, the 16-year-old Black Kansas City boy who was shot after he mistakenly went to the wrong house as he was trying to pick up his younger twin brothers from a friend’s house.
According to the Kansas City Star, Kansas City Police have sent the case file over to the prosecutor’s office, but have not yet referred charges because they have not yet had a formal interview with Yarl, who was reportedly shot in the head and arm by an 80-year-old white man.
Yarl was supposed to pick up his brothers at a house on 115th Terrace; he mistakenly went to a residence with the same house number on 115th Street. Parking in the driveway, Yarl rang the doorbell. The man opened the door and fired a shot through the glass storm door, striking Yarl in the head and knocking him back onto the ground. The man then fired another shot at Yarl, hitting his upper arm; it’s unclear if the man fired through the storm door again or if he stepped out to fire the shot.
Yarl was recovering at home but still had extensive physical, emotional and psychological injuries his family says will need sustained treatment. The Yarl’s shooter has been identified by CNN, but the network is withholding his identity because he has not yet been charged with a crime. Police say they need a formal interview with Yarl to refer charges to prosecutors.
After being shot, the high school junior went to three different houses before another neighbor reportedly told the boy to back away from the house’s door and lie face down on the ground. A different neighbor said she called 9-1-1 to report the shooting and the injured Yarl at her door; she said the dispatcher told her to stay in the house and not open the door because the location of the shooter was not known. After a while, she ignored the dispatcher’s2 instructions and went to tend to the boy, comforting him until EMTs arrived. “We figured out then he went to the wrong street, which is no excuse for what happened,” she told CNN. “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. I’m a mom … this is not OK.”