Andrew Lester has been accused of trying to kill a black teenager Ralph Yarl by shooting him in Kansas City, Missouri. According to county prosecutor Zachary Thompson, he has been booked for first-degree assault, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
16-year-old Ralph Yarl is recovering at home after being released from the hospital on Sunday.
Who is Andrew Lester?
Andrew Lester is an 85-year-old white man accused of shooting a black teenager. Following the incident on Thursday night, Lester was detained but dismissed by Kansas City police after less than two hours.
The accused is additionally charged with engaging in armed criminal activity, a crime that carries a sentence of three to 15 years in prison. His whereabouts as of Monday evening were unknown.
Lester has a hunting license registered in Missouri, according to some public documents obtained, and he has previously lived in Texas, California, Arizona, and Virginia. The 84-year-old’s name was found in property records that matched Lester to the shooting site and revealed that he had previously worked as a technician for American West Airlines.
Ralph Yarl’s aunt, Faith Spoonmore, set up a GoFundMe page to help pay his medical bills. According to that, the incident took place on Thursday night in a middle-class area of north Kansas City. Yarl was given the responsibility of picking up his twin younger brothers. However, as he didn’t have a phone, he ended up in the incorrect neighborhood.
When Yarl knocked on the wrong door, Lester rushed out, shot Yarl in the head once, then shot him again. “The man in the home opened the door, looked my nephew in the eye, and shot him in the head,” Spoonmore wrote. When Yarl fell to the ground, “the man shot him again.”
Also Read: Who is Owen Diaz? Black Tesla elevator operator was subjected to severe racial harassment
Protesters demanding justice for Yarl demonstrated outside Lester’s home over the weekend, yelling “Black lives matter” and brandishing posters that read, “Ringing a doorbell is not a crime.”
