‘Every child deserves to be safe’: VP Kamala Harris responds to Ralph Yarl shooting

Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday became the highest-ranking official so far to react to the shooting of Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old Black Kansas City student, saying “every child deserves to be safe.”

“Doug and I are praying for Ralph Yarl and his family as he fights for his life,” Harris tweeted, referring to her husband, second gentlemen Doug Emhoff. “Let’s be clear: No child should ever live in fear of being shot for ringing the wrong doorbell.”

Outrage has been building in Kansas City after Yarl’s family and attorneys for the family say the teen was shot Thursday night in north Kansas City by a white homeowner. According to his family, Yarl was shot twice after ringing the doorbell of a house that he mistakenly went to while trying to pick up his younger brothers.

Kansas City police are investigating the shooting and Chiefs Stacey Graves said Sunday the department needed a formal victim statement from Yarl. His father told The Star on Monday that he has been released from the hospital.

Harris’ tweet appeared to mark the Biden administration’s first direct comment on the shooting. No one has been charged in the shooting, leading to protests Sunday.

“Every child deserves to be safe. That’s the America we are fighting for,” said Harris, the first Black vice president.

President Joe Biden didn’t explicitly refer to Yarl on Monday, but tweeted that guns are the leading killer of children in the United States and called for action.

“What has our nation come to when children cannot attend a birthday party without fear? When parents have to worry every time their kids walk out the door to school, the movie theater, or to the park?” Biden tweeted.

U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat who was Kansas City’s first Black mayor, said earlier Monday that he could “think of no justification for shooting a child multiple times for ringing the wrong doorbell.”

The Star’s Daniel Desrochers contributed reporting