Outrage mounts over shooting of Black teen who knocked on wrong Kansas City door
Authorities in Kansas City, Mo., on Sunday promised a full investigation into a homeowner’s shooting of a Black teen who rang the wrong doorbell by mistake, sparking public outrage.
Family members identified the boy as 16-year-old Ralph Yarl and said he had gone to pick up his younger twin brothers when he knocked on the wrong door a few blocks away.
What started out as a simple errand for the Black teen last Thursday ended up a nightmare.
“The man in the home opened the door, looked my nephew in the eye and shot him in the head,” his aunt Faith Spoonmore wrote on Facebook.
“My nephew fell to the ground, and the man shot him again,” she continued. “Ralph was then able to get up and run to the neighbor’s house, looking for help. Unfortunately, he had to run to three different homes before someone finally agreed to help him after he was told to lie on the ground with his hands up.”
The jazz musician who plays “multiple instruments” and is in his school’s marching band, with dreams of majoring in chemical engineering at Texas A&M, now faces a long road to recovery, his aunt wrote.
“I want everyone to know that I’m listening, and I understand the concern that we are receiving from the community,” Kansas City Police Department Chief Stacey Graves said in a briefing Sunday attended by the mayor and local prosecutor.
Graves did not identify the shooter or his race, but she did not rule out a racial component. Protests called for the homeowner to be charged with a hate crime, reported KCUR public radio.
“The information that we have now, it does not say that it’s racially motivated,” Graves was quoted as saying by WDAF-TV. “That’s still an active investigation, but as a chief of police, I do recognize the racial components of this case. I do recognize and understand the community’s concern and the community’s response to this particular incident.”
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the alleged shooter’s house on Sunday to demand justice. The homeowner was questioned and released, according to the Kansas City Star, and has not yet been charged with a crime.
Meanwhile, Ralph is hospitalized in critical condition, his family said.
The tragedy demonstrates the profound degree to which law enforcement does not protect Black people in the city, Justice Gatson, founder and director of Reale Justice Network, told KCUR.
“We cannot and we will not be silent when Black children are under attack,” he said. “As a mother of three children, this enrages me. My son delivers food every morning. And sometimes you go to the wrong address. You should never have to worry that your life will be taken.”
