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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An 84-year-old White Kansas City man was charged with two felonies after opening fire on a Black teenager who rang his doorbell after showing up to the wrong home to pick up his siblings.

Authorities issued an arrest warrant for Andrew D. Lester, who was charged with felony assault and armed criminal action, one of which carries up to a life sentence if convicted. Lester shot 16-year-old Ralph Yarl twice — once in the head — late Thursday, according to the Clay County prosecutor’s office.

“There was a racial component to this case,” prosecutor Zachary Thompson said, though he did not offer specifics.

Ralph Yarl shooting may revive ‘stand your ground’ debate: About the laws

Lester is not in custody. He told police that “it was the last thing he wanted to do, but he was ‘scared to death’” because of the teenager’s size and his own age and inability to defend himself, according to the criminal complaint.

“He believed he was protecting himself from a physical confrontation and could not take the chance of the male coming in,” the complaint said of Lester. He was “visibly upset and repeatedly expressed concern for the victim.”

Yarl, who is recovering from his injuries at home, rang Lester’s doorbell, mistaking it for the home where his younger siblings were visiting a friend, according to attorneys for his family. The teenager’s parents had asked him to pick up his siblings at a residence on 115th Terrace, but he instead went to a residence on 115th Street, a block away.

Yarl arrived to take his brothers home but instead was met with bullets. The bleeding teenager sought help from neighbors before he collapsed at the end of one family’s driveway.

The shooting has drawn national attention, with hundreds of protesters descending Sunday evening on the home where Yarl was shot and more protests planned for Tuesday.

President Biden spoke by phone with Yarl on Monday and shared his hope for a swift recovery, the White House said. “Let’s be clear: No child should ever live in fear of being shot for ringing the wrong doorbell,” Vice President Harris said in a tweet.

“As someone who is still recovering from a gunshot to the head, I am heartbroken,” former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local-enterprise/tucson-shootings-how-gabrielle-giffordss-event-for-constituents-turned-to-tragedy-/2011/01/09/ABLuGkD_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_3" target=_blank>injured in a 2011 shooting</a>, said on <a href="https://twitter.com/GabbyGiffords/status/1647991943169712135" target=_blank>Twitter</a>.

The case could reinvigorate debate over  “stand your ground” laws, which have become a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/02/21/stand-your-ground-research-homicides/" target=_blank>flash point in national disputes over gun violence</a>, self-defense and racial profiling, particularly after the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/zimmerman-trial-jurors-request-clarification-on-manslaughter-instructions/2013/07/13/3a26dbbe-ec0c-11e2-aa9f-c03a72e2d342_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_4" target=_blank>fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin</a>, a Black teenager, in 2012.

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Civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Lee Merritt, who are representing Yarl and his family, said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/AttorneyCrump/status/1647768828460298250" target=_blank>statement</a> that Yarl “is alive and recovering” at home but that he has severe injuries. He was “shot twice and struck in the head and arm by an unidentified white male assailant,” the statement said, adding that Yarl was unarmed.

Merritt said in an interview that police had taken the teenager’s statement, in which he described ringing the doorbell, waiting in silence between three and five minutes, and then watching the door open. He then saw a man appear. The homeowner, according to the teen’s recollection, said something about not wanting him “to come around anymore” and opened fire on the boy’s face from behind a screen glass door.

“There’s no justification for that under these set of facts,” Merritt said.

However, the prosecutor said the evidence did not show that any words were exchanged between Yarl and Lester before the gunfire.

According to the criminal complaint, Lester had just lain down in bed when he heard the doorbell and went to the door. His house has an interior door and an exterior storm door. He opened the interior door and saw a Black male he perceived to be “6 feet tall” pulling on the storm door, which was locked.

Lester told police he was afraid someone was trying to break into house and opened fire from his Smith &amp; Wesson .32-caliber pistol within seconds of opening the door.

Yarl said in his statement to police that he did not pull on the door and was shot immediately.

Zach Dovel, 20, who lives across the street from the alleged shooter, said he was listening to a podcast Thursday evening when he and his mother heard banging on the door and the teen saying he had been shot.

They called 911, he said, but didn’t open the door right away because they were not sure whether he was the victim or the shooter. Yarl then walked down the stairs and collapsed at the end of their driveway, leaving a trail of blood behind.

At that point they rushed to help, bringing towels to stanch the blood, and tried to keep him talking and conscious, Dovel said. Yarl told them he was a Staley High School junior and played clarinet, Dovel said. The police and ambulance arrived quickly and took Yarl to a hospital.

“There was a decent amount of blood going from our door to the street. It was horrible,” Dovel said. “He was bleeding out right in front of our mailbox.”

Yarl appeared to have two gunshot wounds, Dovel said.

Missouri’s “stand your ground” and “castle doctrine” laws do not require individuals to retreat when they perceive a threat. But they cannot act in self-defense unless there exists “a reasonable fear of deadly force or assault,” according to Kansas City attorney Kevin Jamison, who has defended clients using the law.

At home, Missouri homeowners who are in reasonable fear of “unlawful force,” which is not defined under the law, are permitted to use deadly force in an act of self-defense.

But the act of knocking on the door or ringing a doorbell would not be a justifiable reason for unleashing deadly force, Jamison said.

“You have to do more than just say, ‘I felt threatened’; you have to prove that something threatening was going on,” said Daniel Webster, a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Gun Violence Prevention and Policy.

While the “stand your ground” area of law is complicated, Webster said, it is also wrapped within a gun-friendly culture and a firearms industry that sensationalizes self-defense.

“When people think about self-defense, they are thinking about predatory acts of crime that threaten one’s safety and property,” he said. “But the laws are used in a much broader array of complex interactions between people, and sometimes people literally get away with murder because of this law.”

News of Yarl’s shooting sparked a protest Sunday in Kansas City. Hundreds of people, including members of Yarl’s family, marched to the residence where Yarl was found in the city’s Northland neighborhood, <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2023-04-16/ralph-yarl-hate-crime-kansas-city-protest-black-teen-shooting" target=_blank>according to local public radio station KCUR</a>. Many demanded that stronger action be taken against the suspected shooter, and more demonstrations were in the works.

No one answered at the home Monday afternoon. One side of the modest cream house was tagged with graffiti, with raw eggs splattered on a front window. On a backyard fence, a sign declared that “This property is protected by surveillance cameras.”

It is just a couple of blocks from Yarl’s family home, where children’s bikes lay in the yard and a basketball hoop was visible in the backyard.

Fannie Gibson, owner of Fannie’s West African Cuisine in Kansas City, said she knew Yarl and his family because his parents are fellow Liberian immigrants who often came into her restaurant for spicy cassava leaf stew and other Liberian dishes.

“We all know Ralph,” she said. “He’s a quiet kid, doesn’t bother anyone, always reading, very respectful.”

The news of Yarl’s shooting has hit the small, close-knit Liberian community hard, she said.

“When I heard about it, I was crying all day because I have a 15-year-old son. That could have been my son,” Gibson said.

North Kansas City Schools Superintendent Dan Clemens said in a statement that the school system was “devastated” to learn that Yarl, who is “an excellent student and talented musician,” had been shot. “I know that many of you share the same anger, frustration, shock and disbelief that I am experiencing now,” he wrote. “We must allow time for the investigation to be completed.”

A 15-year-old classmate — who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing concerns for her security — plays in the Staley High School band with Yarl and described him as “shy, studious and funny once he opened up.”

“He’s a great all-around guy,” the classmate said. “Teachers love him. Students love him. Everybody loves Ralph.”

He once comforted her in her freshman year when she told him how scared she was to start driving. Now she worries about how he will cope after his injuries.

“A lot of people are scared for Ralph at this time because he has turned into a national sensation,” she said. “That’s not what Ralph would want. He’s a very humble person. All this attention probably makes him very uncomfortable.”

Susan Pfannmuller

The teen’s shooting has attracted national attention, with celebrities and politicians demanding action.

“[M]y heart completely broke when I learned this precious 16-year-old, who accidentally rang the door of the wrong address in an attempt to pick up his siblings, was shot in the head … by a man who didn’t want him on his property,” tweeted actress Halle Berry.

Many people speculated online that Yarl’s race may have played a role in his shooting, which came as the United States continues reckoning with its long <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/race-america/" target=_blank>history of violence against Black people</a>.

“I have sent my 17 year-old son to go pick up one of his siblings from a friend’s house,” Georgia state Rep. Michelle Au (D), who is Chinese American, wrote on Facebook. “Like Ralph, he excels in a youth orchestra. Like Ralph, he is a student in the sciences. Like Ralph, he has big dreams. I don’t know that my son would be shot for ringing the wrong person’s doorbell.”

A <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/nf36y-cover-medical-expenses" target=_blank>GoFundMe</a> started by Faith Spoonmore, who identified herself as Yarl’s aunt, had raised more than $1.8 million as of early Monday evening.

In the fundraiser, Spoonmore described Yarl as “a fantastic kid” who is passionate about music and academics. She said Yarl hoped to one day attend Texas A&amp;M University to study chemical engineering, and to travel to West Africa.

“Life looks a lot different right now. Even though he is doing well physically, he has a long road ahead mentally and emotionally. The trauma that he has to endure and survive is unimaginable,” Spoonmore wrote of Yarl. “He is our miracle. We have heard these types of stories many times, and unfortunately, most black boys are not alive to get another chance.”

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the first name of the owner of Fannie’s West African Cuisine in Kansas City, Mo. She is Fannie Gibson, not Annie Gibson. This article has been corrected.

<i>Hernández reported from San Antonio and Timsit from London.</i> <i>Rachel Hatzipanagos in Washington contributed to this report.</i>

Best American Newspaper Narratives, 2022, 2020

Front Page Award, 2020

James Beard Foundation Award for Feature Reporting (Finalist), 2020

Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Coverage of South Asia, 2019, 2018

Ramnath Goenka Award for a foreign correspondent covering India, 2018

Society of Publishers in Asia Award for Editorial Excellence, 2017

University of Kansas, BA in English, BS in journalism

Annie Gowen is a correspondent for The Post's National desk. She was the India bureau chief from 2013 to 2018. 

Annie Gowen

Forbes 30 Under 30, Media & Marketing Europe, 2020

Gracie Awards, Original Online News Programming, 2020

MHP 30 To Watch: Young Journalist Award, 2019

Georgetown University, Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service

Annabelle Timsit is a breaking news reporter for The Washington Post's London hub, covering news as it unfolds in the United States and around the world during the early morning hours in Washington.

Annabelle Timsit

Freedom Forum/ASNE Award for Distinguished Writing on Diversity, 2013

Sunshine State Awards, first place breaking news, Society of Professional Journalists, 2013

White House News Photographers Association, first place multimedia package, 2018

Alumnus of the New York Times Student Journalism Institute, 2007

Scripps Howard Award in Multimedia Innovation, 2017

World Press Photo Award for Innovative Storytelling, Sin Luz: Life without Power, 2018

University of Maryland, BA in broadcast journalism, minor in U.S. Latinx studies

Arelis Hernández is a Texas-based border correspondent on the national desk working with the immigration team and roving the U.S. southern border. Hernández joined the Post in 2014 to cover politics and government on the local desk after spending four years as a breaking news and crime reporter at the Orlando Sentinel. 