Kansas City homeowner charged in shooting black teen

An 84-year-old white man charged in the shooting and
wounding of a Black teenager who mistakenly walked up to the
suspect’s house in Kansas City has surrendered to police, the
Clay County Sheriff’s Office said on Tuesday.
Andrew Lester had been charged a day earlier with
first-degree assault – which could bring a sentence of life in
prison – for shooting Ralph Yarl, 16, on the doorstep of his
suburban home around 10 p.m. last Thursday.
The teen had walked up to Lester’s house to pick up his
younger siblings, who were at a nearby house with a similar
address.
Lester was also charged with armed criminal action,
punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
“Andrew Lester, charged in the shooting of Ralph Yarl, has
surrendered at our Detention Center. He is in custody,” the Clay
County Sheriff said on Twitter.
Bond for Lester was set at $200,000.
“I can tell you there was a racial component to the
case,” Thompson said, without elaborating during a news
conference to announce the charges.
Prosecutors have not filed hate crime charges, which
carry lesser penalties in Missouri than the two counts which
Lester faces, Thompson added.
Lester fired two shots through a glass door with a
.32-caliber revolver, the prosecutor said. Yarl, who was struck
in the head and an arm, did not cross the threshold, Thompson
said, adding it did not appear any words were exchanged in the
encounter.
But Yarl told police in an interview at the hospital
where he was treated that the man told him, “Don’t come around
here,” local media reported, citing court documents.
The teen was recovering at home on Monday, his family
said.
Lester was initially taken into custody, placed on a
24-hour investigative hold, then released pending an interview
with Yarl and the collection of forensic evidence, Kansas City
Police Chief Stacey Graves said.
His release helped fuel two days of protests.
Demonstrators gathered again on Monday at the suspect’s
single-story house on a tree-lined street, shouting “Black lives
are under attack” and “Stand up, fight back,” online videos
showed.
Missouri has a “stand your ground” law that allows
homeowners to use physical force to defend themselves against
suspected intruders.
The law says a person cannot use deadly force unless
they reasonably believe it is necessary to protect themselves or
another person against death or serious physical injury, or a
possible felony.
Lee Merritt, a lawyer for Yarl’s family, said on Tuesday
the “stand your ground” law would only protect a homeowner if
the person had been threatened.
“The law doesn’t protect him under these circumstances,”
Merritt said in a CNN interview.
“There’s no way you can see fear when you look at that
kid,” his aunt Faith Spoonmore said in the same interview. “In
this country, from decades – hundreds of years – of
conditioning, we’ve decided that Black and criminal is almost
synonymous.”