A family in Kansas City is demanding answers after a white man shot their Black child, Ralph Pual Yarl, in the head when he accidentally rang the doorbell of the wrong home.
Like Ralph Yarl’s parents, Patience Gaye moved to the United States from Liberia to escape violence before starting a family.
That was years ago. But on Sunday, she marched alongside at least 200 people in Kansas City’s Northland at a peaceful protest in support of Ralph, a 16-year-old who was shot and critically wounded Thursday after he went to the wrong house to pick up his younger twin brothers, according to family.
Ralph is a junior at Staley High School. Friends said he’s talked of going to Stanford after he graduates.
They are protesting outside the house that shot Ralph Pual Yarl, when he accidentally went to the wrong address trying to pick up his sibling. He was shot, fell down, and shot again. He had to speak to 3 houses before anyone would call for help. This neighborhood is evil.
Gaye, 33, a long-time family friend to Ralph’s parents, is pregnant with her first child, and filled with a new fear as she watches Ralph’s struggle to recover from his injuries.
“How do you protect a Black kid?” she asked. “… What are we supposed to do now? We left our countries because we don’t want to be killed. That’s why we left. They came to America for a better life. How is this a better life?”
The boy, Ralph Yarl, “mistakenly went to the wrong house” in a Kansas City neighborhood on Thursday, according to a GoFundMe set up by his aunt to handle medical expenses.
Yarl pulled up 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,” his aunt, Faith Spoonmore, wrote. “My nephew fell to the ground, and the man shot him again.”
Still conscious, Yarl ran for help, but Spoonmore alleged that he “had to run to 3 different homes” before someone came to his aid, and then only after ordering the 16-year-old to lie on the ground with his hands up. He was hospitalized, but “has a long road ahead mentally and emotionally,” the fundraiser page reads.
The alleged gunman, who has not been identified, was taken into custody and brought to a police station to give a statement. Placed on a 24-hour hold, he was released pending further investigation, something the chief of the Kansas City Police Department spent much of a short Sunday press conference justifying.
“The vast majority of cases to include violent crime involve the suspect being released pending further investigation,” Chief Stacey Graves said. “In this case, the prosecutor requires more information from investigators that would take more than 24 hours to compile throughout the weekend.”
She explained that detectives were working to compile forensic evidence and take a formal statement from Yarl. It was not clear if he was in a condition to make a statement on Sunday.
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