Kansas City homeowner charged in shooting of Black teen released on bond
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[April 19, 2023]
(Reuters) -An 84-year-old white man charged in the
shooting and wounding of a Black teenager who mistakenly walked up to
the man's house in Kansas City surrendered to police, the Clay County
Sheriff's Office said on Tuesday, but was freed on bond within a few
hours.
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.
Yarl 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
earlier on Twitter.
Bond for Lester was set at $200,000, which he posted within a few hours
of turning himself in to authorities, the Clay County Sheriff's office
said on social media late Tuesday afternoon.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Apr/19/images/ads/current/castlemanor_sda_FINANCIAL_2017.png)
"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 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.
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![](../images/041923PIX/news_v2.jpg)
Andrew Lester, charged in the shooting
of Ralph Yarl, poses in his booking photograph after his surrender
to the Detention Center of the Clay County, Missouri Sheriff in
Liberty, Missouri, U.S. April 18, 2023. Clay County, Missouri
Sheriff/Handout via REUTERS
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Apr/19/images/ads/current/businessdirectory_dailycover_2023.png)
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 swift release helped fuel two days of protests. Demonstrators at
the suspect's single-story house on a tree-lined street on Monday
shouted "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."
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Additional reporting by
Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas; Editing by Deepa Babington and Bill
Berkrot)
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