Shooting of Teen Who Rang Doorbell at Wrong House Unsettles Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On Tuesday morning, hundreds of Staley High School students filled the street outside their school in a display of anger and support for their fellow student, Ralph Yarl, who was shot by a homeowner after he rang a doorbell at the wrong house in Kansas City last week. One sign read, “We Walk for Ralph.” Another demanded, “Justice 4 Ralph Yarl.”

By day’s end, they found some measure of relief, as Andrew D. Lester, the 84-year-old man accused of shooting Ralph, surrendered to the authorities after being charged with assault in the first degree and armed criminal action.

But many residents of Kansas City remained deeply troubled by the events that had shaken their city for the last several days. Some asked why Mr. Lester was released from police custody last week rather than being charged immediately. Others said that federal hate crime charges should be brought, in a case that the county prosecutor said had a racial component, as an older, white homeowner was accused of shooting an unarmed Black teenager. A few wondered if a jury would sympathize with Mr. Lester, who told the police that he was “scared to death” of being physically harmed before shooting Ralph.

In a country on edge over crime, the shooting was the latest example of an ordinary interaction — the ringing of a doorbell on a front step in a quiet neighborhood in Missouri — instantly turning into another shocking incident of American gun violence.

“I am, I think, sufficiently frightened over how easily we are willing to shoot each other,” said Representative Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat who previously served as the first Black mayor of Kansas City.

At a gathering in downtown Kansas City on Tuesday afternoon, Karen Allman, who lives down the street from Mr. Lester, said that she found some satisfaction that he had turned himself in, but that she was still upset over what had happened — and that Mr. Lester had not been charged for several days after the shooting on Thursday night.

“I have no doubt that if it was a Black homeowner who shot a white kid on his porch, he would have stayed in jail until somebody pressed charges,” she said.

Jail records showed that Mr. Lester was released on bond from Clay County jail shortly after surrendering to the authorities on Tuesday. No lawyer was listed as representing him in court records, and it was not clear when he might appear in front of a judge.

Ralph, who had been sent to pick up his younger siblings when the shooting occurred, was recovering at home after being hospitalized with two gunshot wounds to his head and arm. In a CBS News interview on Tuesday, Cleo Nagbe, Ralph’s mother, said her son was doing “considerably well” after being shot above his left eye and in his upper right arm. Lee Merritt, a lawyer for the family, said Ralph was sitting up and playing with his dog on Tuesday. He said the teenager also spoke by phone with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Paul Yarl, Ralph’s father, said this week that his son, an athlete who loves music and video games, had surgery over the weekend to remove the bullets and was able to walk out of the hospital on Sunday. He is expected to make a full recovery.

The authorities in Kansas City released new details of their investigation, and in the neighborhood in far northern Kansas City where the shooting took place, residents said they were still stunned by the shooting and its aftermath.

There was little disagreement over what had transpired on Thursday night. According to the criminal complaint, at roughly 9:50 p.m., one resident heard something unusual: a vehicle pulling into Mr. Lester’s driveway. It was odd, the resident later told the police, for Mr. Lester to have a visitor this late at night.

Ralph had made an error common in Kansas City, driving to a house on Northeast 115th Street instead of Northeast 115th Terrace, a block away. He pressed the doorbell and waited outside the front door for what felt like a long time, he told the police later. Mr. Lester, who had just gone to bed, got up and opened the inside door while holding a revolver, according to a probable cause statement from investigators.

Mr. Lester told a police officer after the shooting that he saw a Black male “pulling on the exterior storm door handle.” This was one of the few areas of disagreement: When interviewed by a detective, Ralph said that he only rang the doorbell and did not pull on the door.

Within moments, Mr. Lester began shooting through the glass of the exterior storm door, afraid that a break-in was in progress, he told the police.

Ralph was shot in the head and then the arm. “Don’t come around here,” he remembers Mr. Lester saying, according to a detective. He got up and ran away, trying to elude more gunshots, he told the police.

Zach Dovel, 20, was across the street watching a podcast, in the house where he lives with his mother.

The two were startled by a bang on the front door; fearful that someone was trying to break in, they called 911. The operator, Mr. Dovel said, told them that there was a gunman on the loose and that they should stay inside.

But they could see a teenager in the driveway and went outside. He was limping and bleeding, wounded from gunshots. Mr. Dovel ran back inside and grabbed towels, while his mother talked to Ralph, asking questions and trying to keep him alert until the ambulance arrived.

“The worst part was seeing him get down on his knees — it looked like he was praying,” Mr. Dovel said. “He thought he was going to die.”

One of Ralph’s family members said that he went to three different houses before a neighbor would help him. Mr. Dovel said the police and an ambulance arrived in what felt like minutes, and once there was a police presence outside, more neighbors emerged from their homes.

The shooting happened near the northern edge of Kansas City, a sprawling municipality that is larger in size than New York City though its population is far smaller.

Known locally as the Northland, this stretch of Kansas City north of the Missouri River has a reputation of being more conservative and white than the city as a whole. That perception intensified in 2021 when a dispute over police funding contributed to talk of the Northland splitting from Kansas City. The area where the shooting took place resembles a working-class suburb, with single-family homes that have generous yards and no sidewalks.

Residents who were home on Tuesday said they were unsettled by the shooting but rejected the notion that it reflected on their neighborhood, which was swarmed by television cameras.

“They’re judging all of us, but everybody here is nice and decent,” said Vickie Mahterian, a neighbor. “People come to my door all the time. I don’t shoot them in the head. We are good people here.”

Dan Fowler, a City Council member whose district includes the shooting scene, said there was a broad sense of relief in Kansas City that charges had been filed and that the suspect was in custody.

“It doesn’t bring closure, but it brings a sense of closure that at least the process is going and that there is accountability,” Mr. Fowler said.

Mr. Fowler said Kansas City’s pattern for naming roads, in which there might be a terrace, street or boulevard with similar names near one another, made it easy to understand how Ralph ended up on the wrong porch.

“It’s very easy to get that confused if you are not particularly familiar with the area,” Mr. Fowler said. “I was stunned that somebody would go on such an innocent, everyday thing of picking up your siblings, and then he gets shot.”

S. David Mitchell, a law professor at the University of Missouri, said that a defense lawyer could try to invoke the castle doctrine, law in Missouri that allows people to use deadly force to defend themselves without having to retreat.

The front porch, Mr. Mitchell said, “becomes the gray area of what constitutes one’s castle,” a question that the jury could consider.

“It’s created this narrative that if you’re ever in trouble, you can’t stop and ask a homeowner for assistance in case you’re shot.”

Mitch Smith reported from Kansas City, Mo., and Julie Bosman from Chicago. Carey Gillam and Lauren Fox contributed reporting from Kansas City, Mo. Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.