A Missouri teenager who was shot in the head by an 84-year-old man after mistakenly knocking on his door is raising money for traumatic brain injury.
Ralph Yarl, now 17, was shot in the forehead in April after driving to the wrong address while picking up his younger twin brothers from their friend’s house.
Yarl, who is black, knocked on the door of Andrew Lester, a white man, who shot him twice with a gun. Lester was released on bail and awaiting trial after being charged with first-degree assault and criminal action with a weapon.
On Monday, Yarl’s family attended the annual Going the Distance for Brain Injury Run in Kansas City, which helps raise money for people affected by brain injuries.
Yarl’s aunt, Faith Spoonmore, told ABC News Friday that his nephew was “ready to get his life back” but that “it’s not that simple”.
Ralph Yarl (centre), who was shot in the head by an 84-year-old man after he mistakenly knocked on his door, is pictured during a run to raise money for traumatic brain injury on Monday
Yarl (centre) is pictured with his family on Monday. He received a medal after completing a 1.5 mile march on Monday
Andrew Lester, 84, shot Ralph Yarl twice with a revolver, in the forehead and in the arm. He has been charged with first degree assault and criminal action with a weapon and is out on bail pending trial.
“Ralph has always been the kind of kid who prefers to be alone,” Spoonmore said.
‘Now you see him and he’s lonely but he’s not doing the things he liked to do, and it’s like he’s a shell. And that’s the problem, there’s something missing in him.
“He is 17 and ready to get his life back. He is ready to go back to school. He is ready to return to music. Unfortunately it’s not that simple. It’s not like a page that you can just turn and go back.
The fundraiser Yarl attended on Monday was previously called the Amy Thompson Run – named after a 23-year-old resident who was shot twice in the head during an attempted robbery in 1986, Fox 4 reported.
She survived after several surgeries and a six-week coma, but died unexpectedly a few years later. The event raises money to help fund the nonprofit Brain Injury Association of Kansas and Greater Kansas City.
Yarl received a medal after completing a 1.5 mile walk, KSHB reported. Her mother told the outlet that her recovery was not straightforward.
“Brain injury is a process – it’s not an event, it takes time,” said her mother Cleo Nagbe.
“There are emotional ups and downs. You have their concentration issues, you have their “I want to stay in my room all day”, you have all of that. So it takes a community, it takes a family, it takes a support group – it takes all of those.
Ralph Yarl, 16, was shot twice in the head by a white man after he mistakenly approached the wrong house while picking up his siblings
Ralph Yarl told police he did not cross the border to Lester’s house, and prosecutors said there was no evidence to suggest any words were exchanged before he was beaten down.
The shooting happened on April 13 when Yarl accidentally drove to Northeast 115th Street instead of Northeast 115th Terrace — a block away — in northern Kansas City.
The teenager approached the door but did not “cross the threshold” of the house, prosecutors said.
Lester allegedly opened the door and fired two .32 caliber rounds from a revolver which struck Yarl in the forehead and arm. Prosecutors said there was no indication that any words were exchanged.
Lester told a police officer after the shooting that he saw a black man “pulling the outside handle of the storm door” and that he believed the person was trying to break in.
Yarl was questioned by a detective during which he said he only rang the doorbell and did not shoot the door.
Spoonmore told ABC on Friday that she wasn’t convinced her nephew would have been seen as a threat to Lester, as he has since claimed.
“He was standing on the other side of a glass door when he was shot. This is the part that is really close to my heart. It’s that there was a barrier between this 16-year-old boy and this 84-year-old man,” she told the station.
Pictured: The home of Andrew Lester, the 84-year-old white owner accused of shooting black teenager Ralph Yarl in Kansas City, Missouri
Andrew Lester, 84, pleaded not guilty in a first appearance at the Clay County Courthouse in April
“When this man speaks, he saw a six-foot black person. There’s no way to open a door, and you look through a glass door, and you look at this kid who’s probably 5’7′ tall and you still see a threat.
She added that she was grateful to Ralph for still being alive and looked forward to the day when he could tell his own story.
“I hope that doesn’t stop him from seeing the good in people. I hope he doesn’t generate any form of hatred in him. Because there’s a lot of stuff in there,” a- she declared.
“There are a lot of things to deal with and I hope he realizes that there are good people in every race, there are bad people in every race. We have to take people for who they are, and hopefully he’s still able to move on and do bigger things.
