Shootings of young people who went to wrong houses draw attention to ‘stand your ground’ laws

Two shootings of young people who mistakenly showed up at the wrong houses in two separate states have attracted national attention — and could renew the debate over the rights of those seeking to protect their property.

Here’s everything we know about the two cases, culled from our original reporting and Yahoo News’ partner network, including the USA Today, NBC News and Kansas City Star.

White man shoots Black teen who rang wrong doorbell

Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old Black boy, was shot in Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday night after he rang the doorbell at a home where he believed he was to pick up his two siblings.

The homeowner, Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old white man, is facing two felony counts, including assault in the first degree and armed criminal action, in connection with the shooting.

When police arrived, they found Ralph wounded on the street.

Ralph suffered a gunshot wound to the head and another to the arm but survived. He spent three days in the hospital before being released Sunday, Ralph's father, Paul Yarl, told the Kansas City Star.

Officials said that Lester fired his gun through a locked glass door and shot Ralph twice, even though the teenager did not attempt to enter the home and no words were exchanged between the two.

Lester told police that he thought Ralph was trying to break in and was “scared to death.”

An arrest warrant was issued for Lester on Monday evening amid mounting public pressure to hold the alleged shooter accountable. Lester surrendered and was booked into jail on Tuesday afternoon.

The attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the Yarl family, called the charges “appropriate,” but told Yahoo News that his arrest was long overdue.

“They let this white man go, who shot this 16-year-old teenager who only pushed his doorbell, and they questioned him for 20 minutes and let him come home and sleep in his bed at night,” Crump told Yahoo News shortly after the warrant announcement. “Had the roles been reversed — had a Black man shot a 16-year-old white citizen — [nobody would] believe they would’ve let him come home and sleep without him being arrested and processed.”

Woman driven to wrong address fatally shot by homeowner

Kaylin Gillis, a 20-year-old woman looking for a friend's house in upstate New York, was fatally shot by a homeowner after the car she was riding in went to the wrong address, authorities say.

NBC News reported that Gillis was in a car with three other people Saturday night in the rural town of Hebron, N.Y., when the group mistakenly turned onto the property of Kevin Monahan, 65.

As they were leaving, Monahan came out of his house and fired at the vehicle, Washington County Sheriff Jeffrey Murphy said at a news conference Monday.

"While they were leaving the residence, once they determined that they were at the wrong house, the subject came out on his porch for whatever reason and fired two shots, one of which struck the vehicle that Kaylin was in," Murphy said.

As was the case in Kansas City, Murphy said there appeared to have been no interaction between the group and Monahan before the shots were fired.

The group then drove to the neighboring town of Salem, N.Y., and called 911. Paramedics arrived and performed CPR, but Gillis was pronounced deceased at the scene.

"She was a young girl that was taken way too young," Murphy said. "This is a very sad case of some young adults that were looking for a friend's house, and ended up at this man's house.

"There was clearly no threat from anyone in the vehicle," Murphy added. "There was no reason for Mr. Monahan to feel threatened."

Monahan was later arrested and charged with second-degree murder.

'You can’t just shoot people who come to your door'

The shootings by homeowners are likely to renew debate surrounding so-called "stand your ground" laws, which govern the use of deadly force in self-defense, legal experts told USA Today.

"The concern is that the 'stand your ground' language means we're back in Wild West days, where people can respond to confrontations with deadly force, even if deadly force is disproportionate to the threat, and that's not the law in any state," Christopher Slobogin, a law professor at Vanderbilt University and director of the school’s Criminal Justice Program, told the paper.

The Missouri principle that governs the Ralph Yarl case is also known as the “castle doctrine,” a set of self-defense laws that include the "stand your ground" law, the Kansas City Star’s Kynala Phillips explained:

“The laws give people the right to defend themselves from people who they feel are threatening them. It protects people who feel threatened at their home, in their vehicle, on private property or “any other location such person has the right to be,” Phillips wrote. “If a person believes there is a risk of death or serious physical injury, and they are legally allowed to be in the place they are, that person can use deadly force to defend themselves or others without breaking the law. They do not have a legal duty to retreat from an altercation, according to Missouri law.”

But they do have to prove that they were acting in self-defense.

“You can’t just shoot people who come to your door,” Missouri criminal defense attorney Kevin Jamison told the newspaper.

Reaction from the White House focuses on guns

President Biden spoke by phone to Ralph Yarl on Monday evening to wish him a swift recovery.

At her daily press briefing on Tuesday afternoon, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the shootings were part of the nation’s gun violence epidemic.

“Let me just lay out, sadly, what we have seen these last couple of days,” Jean-Pierre told reporters. “Four young people killed at a Sweet 16 party in Dadeville, Ala.; two killed and four others injured on Saturday night in a crowded public park in Louisville; a bright young, loving 16-year-old kid Ralph Yarl shot in the head in Missouri after ringing the wrong doorbell; and we just learned a few hours ago, about 12 hours ago, about a young woman, 20-year-old woman in upstate New York who was killed for turning down the wrong driveway. And these are just some of the tragedies that actually have made the headlines.”