By: Dave Pulver
On April 13th, Ralph Yarl, a teenager and an honor student at Staley High School, accidentally went to the wrong house while trying to pick up his younger brothers and was shot in the head after ringing the doorbell. According to charging documents filed in Clay County, the 84-year-old Kansas City man who shot 16-year-old Ralph Yarl admitted to Kansas City detectives that he opened fire “within a few seconds” of seeing the Black teen on his Northland doorstep on Monday. The man, Andrew D. Lester, who is white, allegedly told police he feared for his safety when he answered the door and saw Yarl there.
According to charging documents, Clay County prosecutors believed the shooting warranted further investigation on Thursday, prompting Lester’s release from custody. According to charging documents, the first call for a reported shooting came to Kansas City police at roughly 9:52 p.m. Responding officers found Ralph Yarl in the street roughly five houses down from where the shooting had unfolded in the 1100 block of N.E. One witness, a neighbor, told police of the sound of gunfire coming from Lester’s home shortly before Yarl could be heard screaming for help.
On April 14, the day after Yarl was shot, a Kansas City detective went back to conduct an informal interview after he was well enough to speak. After pulling into the driveway, Yarl told detectives he walked to the front door and rang the bell. During a recorded interview at Kansas City police headquarters on the night of the shooting, Lester allegedly said he had just gone to bed when he heard the doorbell ring. “He believed he was protecting himself from a physical confrontation and could not take the chance of the male coming in,” a detective wrote, summarizing Lester’s statement to police, adding Lester appeared “visibly upset and repeatedly expressed concern for the victim.”
Source: Kansas City Star
Kansas City Star Rating
Bio: Dave Pulver is a Contributing writer at MBFC & NFN. A retired communications engineer of 35 years, his interests include technology, history, civics, and politics.
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