Man charged with shooting boy, 16, in head who rang the wrong doorbell

A Missouri man has been charged with shooting a 16-year-old teen in the head after he mistakenly rang the wrong doorbell while picking up his siblings.

A Missouri man has been charged over the shooting of Ralph Yarl, 16.

An 84-year-old US man is behind bars after being charged with shooting a black teenager who rang his doorbell by mistake while picking up his siblings.

Police said Andrew Lester turned himself in on Tuesday, about five days after he allegedly shot teenager Ralph Yarl in the head and arm outside his home in Kansas City, Missouri.

Ralph, 16, was scheduled to pick up his twin brothers at a home on 115th Terrace but accidentally went to 115th Street, police said.

He suffered life-threatening injuries from the gunshots and was rushed to hospital, and is now recovering at home.

The Clay County Prosecutor’s Office charged Mr Lester with first-degree assault and armed criminal action, the New York Post reports.

Ralph, 16, went to the wrong house while going to pick up his twin brothers.

He is being held at the Clay County Detention Centre on a $US200,000 ($A300,000) bond.

According to the probable cause affidavit, Mr Lester told police he was going to bed when Ralph rang his doorbell on Thursday night, alarming the man.

He claimed he was “scared to death,” thinking someone was trying to break into his home when he fired at Ralph, who he described as a “black male, approximately six feet [183cm] tall, pulling on the storm door handle”.

Ralph, however, maintains that he never touched the door and was outside the home to pick up his younger brothers, who were waiting for him at a nearby address.

Ralph told police he was instantly shot in the head, and when he fell to the ground, he was then shot in the arm.

The teenager claimed to police that Mr Lester warned, “Don’t come around here,” as he fled, fearing he would be shot again.

The teen was discharged from hospital days later, and his mother says he does little but cry in bed thinking about the shooting.

Alleged shooter Andrew Lester, 84. Picture: Clay County Missouri Sheriff's Office/AFP

Mum Cleo Nagbe said her son is “able to communicate mostly when he feels like it, but mostly he just sits there and stares and the buckets of tears just roll down his eyes”.

“You can see that he is just replaying the situation over and over again, and that just doesn’t stop my tears either,” she told CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King on Tuesday.

But, Ms Nagbe added, her son was still doing “considerably well”.

“Physically, mornings are hard, but his spirits are in a good place. I borrow from his spirits. He is in very good hands.”

Mr Lester’s arrest also came following days of protest and outcry over the shooting of Ralph, one of his state’s top young bass clarinetists and a multi-instrumentalist in the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of Kansas City.

“To pretend that race is not a part of this whole situation would be to have your head in the sand,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas told CNN.

“This boy was shot because he was existing while black.”

At a prese conference on Sunday night, Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves said the information at the time “does not say that it’s racially motivated” and that the investigation was still active.

“But as a chief of police, I do recognise the racial components of this case. I do recognise and understand the community’s concern.”

The boy was rushed to hospital and is now recovering at home.

The White House announced on Monday night that US President Joe Biden had spoken by phone to Ralph “and shared his hope for a swift recovery”.

The teen’s aunt, Faith Spoonmore, set up a GoFundMe campaign which has pulled in more than $US2.9 million ($A4.3 million) as of Wednesday morning.

Ms Spoonmore said her nephew was a gifted student who dreamt of studying chemical engineering.

A statement from his school, North Kansas City School District, said Ralph was “an excellent student and talented musician”.

The two felony charges Mr Lester faces carry 10 to 30 years behind bars, or life in prison, prosecutors said.

According to the probable cause affidavit, Mr Lester claimed he was defending himself, which would play into Missouri’s “stand your ground” self-defence law.

Under that law, a person may use physical and deadly force against another if they have a reason to believe that such force is necessary to protect “against death, serious physical injury or any forcible felony”.

Missouri’s “castle doctrine” also specifically allows such action to be used in a person’s home.

A version of this article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Man charged with shooting boy, 16, in head who rang the wrong doorbell