Ralph Yarl, the 17-year-old who was shot after going to the wrong house to pick up his siblings, opened up about the incident for the first time. He recounted his mother asking him to pick up his twin brothers from a friend’s house, which he had never been to before.
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Yarl remembered waiting for “a long time” before an older man with a gun opened the door, revealing another glass door standing in between them.
“He points [the gun] at me … so I kinda, like, brace and I turn my head,” he told Good Morning America. “Then it happened. And then I’m on the ground … and then I fall on the glass. The shattered glass. And then before I know it, I’m running away shouting, ‘Help me, help me.”
Yarl says he was bleeding from his head and that he was surprised at how alert he was, adding that his “instincts took over.” The 17-year-old declined help from the first house he approached and had to approach multiple homes.
“So then I go to the next house across the street. No one answers,” Yarl says. “And the house to the right of that house, I go there, and someone opens the door and tells me to wait for the police.”
His mother, Cleo Nagbe, said that she drove around looking for her son after he didn’t return home with his siblings. She said she received a phone call from the police, indicating that Ralph had been shot and was in the hospital.
“It was traumatic,” she said.
Yarl was shot in the head and in the right arm on April 13 by Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old homeowner in Kansas City, Missouri, according to police. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and has since been seeing a therapist. His family relocated after the incident. Yarl didn’t want to go back home after he was shot in the neighborhood where he also lived, his aunt told ABC News last month.
“I’m just a kid and not larger than life because this happened to me,” Yarl said. “I’m just gonna keep doing all the stuff that makes me happy. And just living my life the best I can and not let this bother me.”
Yarl hopes to pursue his recovery by focusing on his passion for chemical engineering and music. The 17-year-old plays several instruments, including the bass clarinet, the saxophone, the tenor saxophone, the clarinet and the contrabass clarinet. He said music has helped him cope as he recovers from the shooting.
“Classical music kinda resonates with me,” he said. “Just the feeling that it creates and the fact that you can make it yourself … it kinda invigorates me.”
Lester was charged with one count of felony assault in the first degree and one count of armed criminal action, which is also a felony. He pleaded not guilty and was released on April 18 on a $200,000 bond. A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 31 after a judge agreed to partially seal the evidence. Lester told the police he “believed someone was attempting to break into the house.” He shot twice before calling 911.
Following the shooting, Yarl received support from the community, who pushed for the story to be given more attention. Hundreds of students walked out in support of the teenager. The Kansas City Defender, a Black-owned news outlet, has been central to amplifying the incident, leading it to get national coverage.
Last month, Yarl attended a Memorial Day event in Kansas City, Missouri, to help raise money for traumatic brain injuries, according to ABC News. His family joined him in the “Going the Distance for Brain Injury” event, which featured a 10K, 5k, a 1.5-mile walk and an event for children.
“Justice is just the rule of the law, regardless of race, ethnicity, and age,” Yarl replied when asked what justice looks like to him. “[Lester] should be convicted for the crimes that he made,” he added. “I am past having any personal hatred for him.”
