Ralph Yarl – update: Andrew Lester’s family ‘disgusted’ by shooting as stand your ground laws in spotlight

Ralph Yarl’s attorney Lee Merritt has said that his shooting is an example of the “systemic racism” in America.

“It was an actual bullet that went into his skull...we’ve criminalized Blackness for years and we’re just starting to deal with...systemic racism,” he told ABC News.

Last week, Ralph Yarl found himself lying in a hospital bed with gunshot wounds to his left forehead and right arm.

Harrowing photos showed the Black teenager with tubes coming out of him and his head and arm wrapped up in bandages.

He is alive but his family says he has a long road to recovery ahead – a recovery that threatens to derail his dreams of going off to college to pursue a career in engineering.

So how did he end up here?

He went to pick up his younger brothers from a friend’s house, accidentally rang the doorbell at the wrong address and was shot twice by the 84-year-old white homeowner, Andrew Lester.

Here’s what you need to know about the case:

Another grandson of suspect Andrew Lester has come to the defence of the 84-year-old and denied that race will have played a part in the shooting of Ralph Yarl.

Daniel Ludwig told The Kansas City Star that the shooting was “sad” but said he believes his grandfather wouldn’t have opened fire if the teenager hadn’t “gone for the door”.

Mr Lester told police he was “scared to death” because he saw Ralph pulling on the door handle.

However, Ralph said that he never pulled the handle and only pressed the doorbell and waited for a response.

“It’s just sad and I wish it didn’t happen,” he said.

“It seems like a bunch of mistakes in a row that resulted in a tragedy. I mean, a lot of mistakes all the way around, unfortunately.”

Initially, officials denied any “racial” element to the shooting and offered no motive for the gunman opening fire on the teen.

Speaking on Sunday, the police chief said that there was no evidence to indicate that the shooting was racially motivated.

But, on Monday, when charges were announced, the prosecutor said he believed “there was a racial component to the case”.

He did not give details as to what led officials to that conclusion and nothing to that end was outlined in the probable cause document.

Lee Merritt, Ralph Yarl’s attorney, later revealed that the DOJ is investigating the shooting as a hate crime.

Another grandson of suspect Andrew Lester has come to the defence of the 84-year-old and his brother’s claims that the suspected shooter holds extremist views.

Daniel Ludwig told The New York Times that he does not believe his grandfather harboured extreme right-wing views or supported conspiracy theories.

“These people are not close to him like I am,” he said, adding that the 84-year-old was “literally too nice” and “spoiled” his family.

His comments come after his brother Klint Ludwig told CNN that their grandfather made “racist comments” and bought into “QAnon-level conspiracies”.

Traditionally, under the law of self-defence, deadly force is considered a last resort, and people generally have a duty to retreat from a situation if possible before resorting to violence, according to Professor Kami N Chavis, director of the William and Mary Law School Center for Criminal Justice Policy and Reform.

At home, the “castle doctrine” often applies, meaning one doesn’t need to retreat from a deadly threat.

However, she told The Independent, in the estimated 35 states with explicit Stand Your Ground legislation or similar provisions, the law takes things one step further.

In these (often Republican) states, the castle doctrine has been expanded and the duty to retreat eliminated in venues well beyond the home. Fatal force can be used not just to stop imminent threats of harm, but also prevent burglaries, or in states like Florida, even to stop an unarmed person from entering an unoccupied vehicle.

“I am opposed to stand your ground laws because they don’t allow people to de-escalate their situations,” Professor Chavis said.

The first such law passed in Utah in 1994, and they’ve since spread across the country with the backing of millions of dollars from the gun lobby and the political clout of conservative-leaning advocacy outfits like the American Legislative Exchange Council, according to Ari Freilich, state policy director of the Giffords Law Center, an advocacy group attempting to reduce gun violence.

Despite this concerted and highly successful effort, the laws, he said, weren’t even proposed as a solution to any well-defined problem with public safety or criminal justice law.

Ralph Yarl had no reason to think he was in danger when he approached the house where believed his younger brothers were waiting for him to pick them up, his family say.

“He got a couple of bullets inside his body, instead of a couple of twins coming out and giving him a hug,” Ralph’s mother Cleo Nagbe said in her first interview after the shooting.

Prosecutors have charged Andrew Lester, 85, with shooting Ralph twice on the evening of 13 April when the 16-year-old accidentally mixed up the older man’s address with that of his brothers’ friends.

Although Ralph survived and is reportedly in good spirits, the shooting sparked protests in Kansas City and condemnation across the country, with activists and civil rights lawyers describing it as part of a pattern of white Americans using deadly force against unarmed Black people based on exaggerated and unreasonable ideas of danger.

Yet many questions remain over exactly what happened, not just on the night of the shooting but in the three days that followed without any charges being announced against Ralph’s assailant.

Here are some of the questions that still need answering:

A GoFundMe campaign launched to support a Black teenager who was shot in the head by a white homeowner when he accidentally went to the wrong address has soared past $3.4m in donations.

Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old high school junior, was shot twice last Thursday when he went to pick up his younger twin brothers from a friend’s house on 13 April.

Donations have been flooding in on a GoFundMe campaign, set up to help pay for the boy’s recovery.

As of Friday morning, a staggering $3.4m had been raised.

Ralph Yarl has been pictured recovering at home from his gunshot wounds.

“Ralph Yarl is home and recovering! How the bullet in his head did not cause more extensive damage is truly a miracle. To God be the glory!” tweeted the family’s attorney Lee Merritt.

The family of suspected shooter Andrew Lester have said they are “disgusted” by the 84-year-old’s shooting of Black teenager Ralph Yarl.

Mr Lester’s grandson Klint Ludwig spoke to CNN on Thursday about his reaction when he learned his grandfather was responsible for the shooting that has shocked the nation and renewed debates around racial justice, gun rights and Stand Your Ground laws.

“I was disgusted. I thought it was terrible,” said Mr Ludwig.

“Myself and my family stand with Ralph Yarl and seeking justice. This is a horrible tragedy, it never should have happened.”

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