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Protesters gathered in Kansas City Sunday after a homeowner shot and injured a Black teenager who family members said went to the wrong house.
Ralph Yarl, 16, was shot twice and hospitalized in critical condition Thursday, attorneys Ben Crump and S. Lee Merritt, who have been retained by Yarl’s family, said in a statement Sunday. The homeowner was placed on a 24-hour investigative hold and released pending further investigation, Kansas City police chief Stacey Graves said at a press conference Sunday.
“There can be no excuse for the release of this armed and dangerous suspect after admitting to shooting an unarmed, non-threatening and defenseless teenager that rang his door,” Crump and Merrit said. “We demand swift action from Clay County prosecutors and law enforcement to identify, arrest and prosecute to the full extent of the law the man responsible for this horrendous and unjustifiable shooting.”
Yarl was going to pick up his younger brothers Thursday when he went to the wrong address and rang the doorbell, according to a GoFundMe created by Faith Spoonmore, who identified herself as his aunt. Crump told the Kansas City Star the homeowner shot Yarl in the head and then shot him again after the teenager fell to the ground.
Yarl then ran to three different neighbors’ houses to get help, Spoonmore wrote.
Officers responded to a call that a teen was shot in front of a residence by a homeowner around 10 p.m., Graves said. The teenager was hospitalized, the homeowner was taken into custody and a firearm was found, she said.
