Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - The family of Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager who was shot in April 2023 after going to the wrong house in Kansas City, Missouri, has filed a lawsuit against the white homeowner who shot him.
The lawsuit, filed by Yarl's mother Cleopatra Nagbe in Clay
County Circuit Court, accuses Andrew Lester, 85, of being careless when he shot
Yarl in the head and arm without warning on April 13, 2023.
Yarl, who was 16 at the time, was severely injured and
suffered a traumatic brain injury.
“At all times relevant, Plaintiff (Ralph Yarl) never posed
or issued a threat to Defendant, Andrew Lester,” the lawsuit states. "At
no time relevant to the circumstances giving rise to this litigation did
Plaintiff (Ralph Yarl) do anything that warranted Defendant, Andrew Lester,
brandishing a firearm at him."
Yarl's family is also suing Lester's homeowners association,
Highland Acres Homes Association, alleging that the association was aware of or
should have been aware of Lester's "propensity for violence, access to
dangerous weapons and racial animus," according to the lawsuit. The suit
claimed that the association had a duty to exercise reasonable care “regarding
the use of a firearm in and on the properties making up the Association.”
Lester was charged with first-degree assault and armed
criminal action. If convicted, he could face life in prison.
Lest pleaded not guilty to the charges in April 2023 but the
case was moved to the state's Circuit Court for trial as the county's lower
court cannot try felonies. He again pled not guilty to the charges in
September 2023 and the trial was scheduled to begin on October 7, 2024.
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