A 16-year-old teenager is recovering from severe gun wounds after he mistakenly went to the wrong address to pick up his siblings in Kansas City, Missouri.
According to CNN, Ralph Yarl, 16, was "shot twice and struck in the head and arm” by a homeowner on Thursday (April 13) when he arrived at the wrong pickup location, Kansas City police and family attorneys said.
Yarl's parents instructed the teen to pick up his siblings at a home on 115th Terrace, but he accidentally went to a residence on 115th Street, the site of the shooting, according to police.
Following the shooting, Yarl was taken to a hospital, where he was in stable condition as of Sunday (April 16), per CNN.
“Despite the severity of his injuries and the seriousness of his condition, Ralph is alive and recovering,” Lee Merritt and Benjamin Crump, the family's attorneys, said in the statement.
The shooter, an unidentified homeowner, was taken into custody on a 24-hour hold and has since been released pending further investigation.
On behalf of Yarl's family, attorneys are demanding “swift action from Clay County prosecutors and law enforcement to identify, arrest and prosecute to the full extent of the law the man responsible for this horrendous and unjustifiable shooting.”
Protesters took the streets of Kansas City, chanting “Justice for Ralph” and “Black Lives Matter” and carrying signs that read, “Ringing a doorbell is not a crime” and “The shooter should do the time."
The police chief addressed questions surrounding whether the shooting was racially motivated, saying “the information that we have now, it does not say that that is racially motivated. That’s still an active investigation. But as a chief of police, I do recognize the racial components of this case.”
A GoFundMe was started by the family to raise money for Yarl, who is a section leader in a marching band and looking forward to graduating from high school.
“Life looks a lot different right now. Even though he is doing well physically, he has a long road ahead mentally and emotionally. The trauma that he has to endure and survive is unimaginable,” the GoFundMe post reads.
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