Indicted for armed assaultAndrew D. Lester, an 84-year-old white man who shot and wounded a 16-year-old African American boy in the head when he accidentally knocked on his Kansas City home, believing it was the home where he was supposed to pick up his siblings.
After the case sparked protests from the African-American community and garnered national attention, authorities issued a arrest warrant for the man and prosecutor Zachary Thompson acknowledged that “there is a racial component”.
The elderly man, who is not being held, told police that hurting the boy was “the last thing he wanted to do, but he was scared to death” to see him at his door given his advanced age and the impossibility to defend themselves. The man said that he “believed he was protecting himself from a physical fight” and showed concern for the victim.
Meanwhile, Ralph Yarl, the 16-year-old injured only for having confused the address of the brothers’ friend’s house, has returned home from the hospital. After being shot twice by the old man’s bullets immediately after opening the door, the boy went to the neighbors’ houses to ask for help, and then collapsed in front of one of the houses.
And the debate has reopened in the country on the so-called “stand your ground” laws, which allow you to use weapons to defend your homes and properties, as happened when 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was killed in 2012 by a man white man who patrolled the neighborhood.
“We need to be clear: no kid should live in fear of being shot for ringing at the wrong address,” said Gabrielle Giffords, a former Dem congresswoman who was injured in a 2012 shooting and has become a leader in the gun control movement. .
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