The family of Kansas City, Missouri, resident Ralph Yarl, 16, has raised more than $2.8 million for medical expenses on GoFundMe after he was shot for going to the wrong address to pick up his twin brother.
"He mistakenly went to the wrong house, one block away from the house where his siblings were," his aunt, Faith Spoonmaker wrote on the crowdfunding site. "He pulled into the driveway and rang the doorbell. The man in the home opened the door, looked my nephew in the eye, and shot him in the head.
"My nephew fell to the ground, and the man shot him again. Ralph was then able to get up and run to the neighbor's house, looking for help."
According to police, Yarl, who is Black, mistakenly rang the doorbell of a home on 115th Street owned by 84-year-old Andrew Lester, who is white, just before 10 p.m. local time, April 13, looking to pick up his siblings, who were at 115th Terrace instead.
Lester, who prosecutors said Monday is charged with two felonies of first-degree assault and armed criminal action, allegedly shot Yarl twice, once in the head and once in the arm, was taken into custody for a 24-hour hold during the investigation and then released before an arrest warrant was issued Monday.
Columbia, Missouri, television station KOMU reported April 17 that while no words were exchanged between Lester and Yarl before the shooting, prosecutors think there was a "racial component" involved in the case.
Yarl was treated and released from a local hospital Sunday and is in the care of his mother who is a nurse, the report said.
Family attorney Ben Crump told the news outlet that Yarl is still struggling with the stress from being shot in the head but is happy to be alive.
"He's not out of the woods yet, but the great thing is, [medical officials] said he was stable enough to go to his home," Crump said in the report.
Crump told CNN that Lester should be arrested for the shooting.
"Nobody can tell us if the roles were reversed, and you had a Black man shoot a white, 16-year-old teenager for merely ringing his doorbell that he would not be arrested," Crump said. "I mean, this citizen went home and slept in his bed at night after shooting that young Black kid in the head."
The amount raised on the crowdfunding site is above the $2.5 million goal set by the family, and comes from almost 75,000 donors, according to the website.
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