White homeowner charged in shooting of Black teen released on bond

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office said on Tuesday that an 84-year-old white man charged in the shooting and wounding of a Black teenager who accidentally approached the man’s residence near Kansas City surrendered to authorities but was released on bail shortly after.

Ralph Yarl, 16, was shot by Andrew Lester last Thursday at about 10 p.m. on the threshold of his suburban house. The shooting was charged as first-degree assault, which carries a potential life term in prison.

Yarl had walked up to Lester’s house to pick up his younger siblings, who were at a nearby property with a similar address.

Lester was also accused of engaging in armed criminal activity, which carries a maximum 15-year jail sentence.

“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 into authorities, the Clay County Sheriff’s office said on social media late Tuesday afternoon.

“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.

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.”

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