Outrage as Black teen shot after going to wrong address to pick up siblings

The prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump has condemned as “unacceptable” the release by authorities in Missouri of a homeowner who twice shot a Black teenager when the youth knocked at his door by mistake. New York man charged with murder for opening fire on a car of young people Read more The parents of Ralph Yarl, 16, say their son was left for dead after the incident last Thursday when he went to pick up his younger twin brothers from a play date in Kansas City and called at the wrong house. The teenager, a high school junior, was recovering at home after being released from a Kansas City hospital on Sunday, where he was being treated for gunshot wounds to his head and chest, Yarl’s family said.

Lee Merritt, who is also representing the family, told the Guardian on Monday that Yarl suffered a fractured skull, a traumatic brain injury involving swelling, post-concussive syndrome and injuries to his arm: “The family is elated that Ralph didn’t succumb to his injuries, but now they’re angry about the failure of the justice system to show any value or appreciation of his life. ” The homeowner, whom Yarl’s family say is white, was detained but released within 24 hours by Kansas City police, who insist they cannot take further action until they have spoken to the seriously injured boy. “It is inescapable not to observe the racial dynamics here,” Crump, who is representing the Yarl family, told CNN.

“We can only imagine if the roles were reversed, and you have a Black man shooting a 16-year-old white child who was simply ringing his doorbell, and the police took him in for questioning and let him come home and sleep in his bed at night. “How much outrage would there be in America? It’s unacceptable. We demand justice.

Arrest the attempted murderer of this young Black child. ” Stacey Graves, chief of Kansas City police, defended the release of the unnamed homeowner on Sunday, citing Missouri law that states a person can be held only 24 hours before being formally charged or released. But she said her department was working quickly to prepare evidence for the Clay county prosecutor as its felony investigation continued.

“We recognise the frustration this can cause,” Graves told reporters. “I want everyone to know that I am listening, and I understand the concern we are receiving from the community. ” Graves acknowledged hundreds of protesters who gathered outside the home where the youth was shot, carrying placards with statements including “Ringing a doorbell is not a crime.

” The police chief said detectives were looking into whether the homeowner was protected by stand-your-ground laws regarding self-defence. She did not confirm how many times Yarl was shot, or where his injuries were. Police had not been able to get a victim statement, she said, because of Yarl’s injuries.

Crump countered Graves’s assertion that while she recognised “racial components” of the incident, “the information we have now does not say that that is racially motivated”. The homeowner’s identity and race were not immediately released. “It harkens back to Trayvon Martin , Ahmaud Arbery and so many of these other tragedies where you had citizens profile and shoot our Black children, and the police then let them go home and sleep in their beds at night,” Crump said, citing other notable cases he was involved with in which white suspects were immediately freed.

According to his family, Yarl, a high school junior with a passion for music, was given the address to pick up his 11-year-old brothers but mistakenly went to a house on 115th Street instead of 115th Terrace and was shot after knocking at the door. Faith Spoonmore, the teen’s aunt, was among protesters on Sunday. She said the homeowner “opened the door, looked my nephew in the eye and shot him in the head”.

She said he was shot a second time after he fell to the ground, was able to get up and run away, and knocked at three homes before someone helped him. “Even though he is doing well physically, he has a long road ahead mentally and emotionally,” she wrote in a GoFundMe appeal to raise money for medical bills and other expenses. By lunchtime on Monday, the appeal had surpassed $1.

2m. Quinton Lucas, the mayor of Kansas City, said members of the police department attended the Sunday protest to listen to community concerns. “This is not something that has been dismissed, marginalised or diminished in any way.

This is something that is getting the full attention of the Kansas City police department,” Lucas said. Merritt said it was rare for a victim to survive this kind of a shooting, and that he was grateful the teenager would be able to tell his side of the story. But he said it was hard for the family to process the news that the man who shot him was released from custody: “They live in the same neighborhood, they may see him at the grocery store or around corner.

That causes a lot of anxiety and fear among the family. ” Merritt, a Texas-based civil rights attorney previously represented the family of Cameron Lamb, a Black citizen fatally shot by a Kansas City detective, Eric DeValkenaere, in 2019 in a traffic stop. DeValkenaere was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison.

Sam Levin and the Associated Press contributed to this report.