Young Ralph Yarl is in a hospital and although he is doing well, his life is still in danger.
Protesters took to the streets after a man shot and injured the teenager Ralph Jarl, who accidentally rang the doorbell at the wrong house to pick up his siblings in Kansas City, Mo., police said Sunday. Yarl, 16, was “shot twice and hit in the head and arm,” lawyers for the family said in a statement.
The protesters marched while chanting “Justice for Ralph” and “Black Lives Matter” and carrying signs that read: “Ringing the bell is not a crime” and “The gunman must serve time”. Responding to reports of a shooting on the night of April 13, officers arrived to find a teenager who had been shot by a homeowner outside an apartment building, according to Kansas City Police Department.
The teenager was taken to a hospital where he was in stable condition on Sunday, police said. Police found the teenager’s parents asked him to pick up his siblings at an address on 115th Terrace, but he accidentally went to a house on 115th Street, where police say he was shot.
Civil rights attorneys S. Lee Merritt and Benjamin Crump were hired by Yarl and his family. “Despite the severity of his injuries and the seriousness of his condition, Ralph is alive and recovering,” the attorneys said in the statement.
The owner of the house who was not named was taken into custody and held in detention for 24 hours, then released pending further investigation as a formal statement from the victim had to be obtained and additional forensic evidence had to be collected, a police chief said from Kansas City.
Attorneys for the injured youth’s family issued a statement calling for “immediate action by Clay County prosecutors and law enforcement agencies to identify and arrest the man responsible for this horrific and unjustifiable shooting.” and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law”.
The mayor Quinton Lucas, who attended the press conference, said police understand the community’s concerns that the shooting could be racially motivated. He said some members of the police department attended a protest in the neighborhood where the shooting took place on Sunday to hear community members’ concerns.
“This is not something that has been discarded, marginalized or diminished in any way. It’s something that’s getting a lot of attention from the Kansas City Police Department,” Lucas said.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump told The Star on Sunday that his Floridabased law firm was hired by the teen’s family. “You can’t shoot people for no reason if someone knocks on the door, and knocking on the door is no justification. This guy should be charged,” Crump said.
Crump has represented the families in several highprofile cases, including Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, as well as Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.