An 84-year-old Kansas City man turned himself in Tuesday after being formally charged on Monday for shooting a black teenager who rang his doorbell. The Clay County Sheriff’s Department tweeted that “Andrew Lester, charged in the shooting of Ralph Yarl, has surrendered at our Detention Center. He is in custody.”
Lester is facing two felony charges: assault in the first degree and armed criminal action, both stemming from the shooting of 16-year-old Yarl.
Yarl told the police that he was picking his brother up but went to the wrong address. When Yarl went and rang Lester’s doorbell, Lester shot through a glass storm door and hit Yarl.
Lester told police that he fired within seconds of opening the main door, but did not speak to Yarl before firing shots through the glass door. Lester told police that he thought Yarl was attempting to break in and was “scared to death” because of Yarl’s size.
The shooting of Yarl garnered national scrutiny after Kansas City Police opted to initially release Lester without charge, a decision that prompted local protests. Yarl’s attorneys Ben Crump, who is representing the family of Tyre Nichols, and Lee Merritt, who represented the family of Ahmaud Arbrey, criticized Monday the police department’s decision to release Lester, hours before charges were announced.