'Unforgivable': Kansas City mayor condemns homeowner who shot 16-year-old
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas joins "Fox & Friends" to discuss the details of the case after Ralph Yarl was shot when he went to the wrong house.
An 84-year-old Missouri man charged with shooting and wounding a Black teenager who mistakenly arrived at his home has surrendered to police, authorities said Tuesday.
"Andrew Lester, charged in the shooting of Ralph Yarl, has surrendered at our Detention Center and is in custody," the Clay County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. "He is in the booking process right now."
Andrew Lester is charged with shooting 16-year-old Ralph Yarl after the teen rang his doorbell. (Clay County Sheriff’s Office )
Charges were filed Monday against Lester, a Kansas City resident, for one count of armed assault and one count of armed criminal action for shooting 16-year-old Ralph Yarl with a .32-caliber pistol around 10 p.m. Thursday.
Yarl was released from the hospital Sunday and is recovering from gunshot wounds to the head and arm. Yarl, 16, had gone to the wrong house to pick up his siblings when he was shot through a glass door after ringing a doorbell, police said.
Yarl's aunt, Faith Spoonmore, wrote in a GoFundMe that her nephew was picking up his younger brothers at a friend's house last Thursday evening and accidentally went to the wrong home one block away because he didn't have his phone.
Ralph Yarl was shot by a homeowner in Kansas City, Missouri. (Ben Crump Law via AP)
Lester told police that he had just gone to bed when he heard his doorbell ring, so he picked up his gun and went to the door, according to the probable cause statement. He saw a Black male pulling at the exterior door handle and shot twice through the glass door because he thought his house was being broke into.
Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson said there was a racial component to the case.
Spoonmore described her nephew as "a fantastic kid" who is a member of the Technology Student Association and Science Olympia Team, as well as a section leader in the marching band.
A police officer on Monday drives past the house in Kansas City where 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot last Thursday. (AP / Charlie Riedel)
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The sheriff's office is not involved in the investigation into the shooting but said it serves as school resource deputies at Yarl's school.
"We're devastated this happened to him. We pray for his swift healing & look forward to seeing Ralph in the halls again very soon," the agency said Monday.
Fox News' Paul Best contributed to this report.
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