Black teen shot in the head after knocking on the wrong door doing ‘exceptionally well’

A 16-year-old boy who was shot in the head after knocking on the wrong door in Kansas City, Mo., is expected to make a full recovery, a lawyer for the family said.

Lee Merritt’s lawyer shared a picture of himself Wednesday sitting next to a smiling Ralph Yarl, less than a week after the teenager underwent emergency surgery.

“You can see in the picture he’s doing really well for a 16-year-old kid who was shot in the face less than a week ago,” Merritt said. As it happens host Nil Koksal.

They said Yarl still has problems with speech, movement and cognition from his traumatic brain injury – but he is improving and is expected to make a full recovery.

“It’s amazing,” Merritt said, noting the boy was shot at a distance of less than 1.5 meters. “I think we’ll be hearing a lot more from Ralph in the future.”

Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old white Kansas City homeowner accused of shooting a Black teenager, pleaded not guilty to first-degree assault and armed criminal action on Friday. He turned himself in on Tuesday and has since been released on bond.

‘The Criminalization of Blackness’

On April 13 at about 10 p.m., Yarl went to pick up his twin sister but entered the wrong house about a block away, police said.

Prosecutors said that when the teenager rang the bell, Lester shot him twice through the glass door with a .32 caliber revolver, hitting him in the head and arm.

Lester told police that he lived alone and was “scared to death” when he saw a Black boy on the porch and thought he was trying to break in, according to the probable cause statement.

No words were exchanged before the shooting, but after Yarl got up to run, he heard Lester yell, “Don’t come here,” the statement said.

Yarl ran to several houses asking for help before finding someone who would call the police.

“I heard people screaming, ‘Help, help, I’ve been shot!'” neighbor James Lynch, who is white, told NBC News. The father of three ran out and found Yarl covered in blood.

Lynch said she checked the boy’s pulse and, when another neighbor came out with a towel, helped stop the bleeding until paramedics arrived.

Held for federal hate crime charges

Lester could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of first-degree assault. The other charge, armed criminal action, is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

He made his first appearance in court Wednesday. With a lawyer by her side, she walked to the bench with the aid of a cane and spoke briefly to the judge, video footage of the session was shown.

Lester surrendered to police on Tuesday, a day after being charged. He was released the same day on a $200,000 US bond. The bail conditions include cell phone monitoring, a ban on possessing weapons “of any kind,” and a requirement that Lester have no contact with Yarl or his family.

Some attorneys have called for him to be charged with a hate crime, but Clay County Prosecutor Zachary Thompson said first-degree assault is a higher-level state felony with a longer sentence.

Merritt said he was “satisfied” with the state criminal charges, but hoped that a federal hate crime would be pursued. The US Department of Justice has not announced any charges, and did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

Thompson has also said there was a “racist component” to the shooting – which Merritt said explains the fact that “Ralph was considered illegal just by his presence there.”

“If Ralph hadn’t been there to tell his side, he would have been the little boy trying to break into the house, and the old man who owned the house was protecting himself,” the laywer said.

“We have allowed the false narrative of the criminalization of Blackness – which began since emancipation in the United States – for years and years until Blackness will only scare the dead, in the words of Mr. Lester.”

Merritt noted that Lester was only charged after a national outcry over the shooting, fueled by Yarl’s friends and family.

WATCH | The students walked on behalf of Ralph Yarl:

He said the family has been on an “emotional roller coaster” since the shooting. When he first learned that his son had been shot, he thought he was going to die. Then he got the incredible news that he had undergone surgery and was able to go home.

“And on top of that … the family has to take responsibility – before I get involved, before something like this happens – [by] tell the world what’s going on and ask for help,” Merritt said.

“The community responded to his request, and this has been very exciting for him. And now he is in a position where he can focus on Ralph and healing and coming together.”

Mother describes teenager ‘bucket of tears’

Cleo Nagbe, Yarl’s mother, told CBS morning co-host Gayle King that her son is doing “pretty well.”

“Physically, mornings are difficult, but his spirit is in a good place. I borrow his spirit,” he said.

Nagbe said the trauma remains visible. She said her son “can communicate usually when he feels like it, but mostly he just sits there and stares and buckets of tears just fall from his eyes.”

“You could see that he was just repeating the situation over and over again, and he didn’t stop crying either,” she said.

Merritt described Yarl — an honors student who plays clarinet in the all-state band — as “a sweet, shy, humble young man.”

“The world has their eyes on him … and what he’s saying is, ‘I don’t understand why everybody’s making such a big deal about it.’ You know, ‘I’m just a kid,'” Merritt said.

“That’s who he is. He’s a really sweet kid. And I believe God has a purpose for him.”