Andrew Lester, 84-year-old Kansas City man accused of shooting Ralph Yarl, is in custody

Deon J. Hampton, NBC News

Yarl, a 16-year-old who is Black, was shot after he mistakenly went to the wrong address to pick up his brothers. He told police he rang the doorbell and was shot.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An 84-year-old Kansas City man accused of shooting a Black teenager who mistakenly rang the doorbell at the wrong home surrendered to police Tuesday, officials said.

“Andrew Lester, charged in the shooting of Ralph Yarl, has surrendered at our Detention Center and is in custody,” the Clay County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “He is in the booking process right now.”

Lester, of Kansas City, was charged Monday with first-degree assault and armed criminal action, both of which are felonies, in the shooting Thursday night of Ralph Yarl, the Clay County prosecuting attorney has said. Lester was released Tuesday evening after he posted bail, which had been set at $200,000, the sheriff’s office said.

Yarl, 16, had gone to gone to the wrong address to pick up his siblings around 10 p.m., and he was shot through a glass door after he rang the doorbell, according to a probable cause statement filed by police. Lester told investigators that he had gone to bed when the doorbell rang and that he went to the door armed with a .32-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver, police wrote. Lester said he saw a Black male he didn’t know pulling on the exterior storm door handle and thought his home was being broken into, the probable cause statement says.

Read more about the attack here.

Learn about persistent racial injustice, a key component of this case, here.

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