Ralph Yarl, the Black teenager who was shot in the head after he mistakenly went to the wrong home to pick up his siblings, is helping to raise money for traumatic brain injuries in the aftermath of the shooting.
On Monday (May 29), Yarl and his family participated in the "Going the Distance for Brain Injury" walk/run event in Overland Park, Kansas, per ABC News.
The teenager, who suffered from traumatic brain injury following last month's shooting, didn't publicly speak during the event, but his mother, Cleo Nagbe, gave a speech before its participants.
"When you get a traumatic brain injury, everybody expects you to look one way, feel one way, or act one way, but it's not that way," Nagbe said. "And everybody's asking me have you gone back to work yet, has Ralph gone back to school yet? That's not the case. A brain injury is a process, it’s not an event. It takes time."
"Let's raise more awareness to stop the things that cause brain injuries and should not be causing it, especially gun violence," the mother added.
Yarl mistakenly went to the wrong address to pick up his siblings on April 13 when he was shot twice by the homeowner. 84-year-old Andrew Lester, who is white, was charged with assault in the first degree and armed criminal action in Yarl's shooting.
He's pleaded not guilty and was released from custody on April 18 on a $200,000 bond.
According to reports, Lester's attorney, Steve Salmon, filed a motion in court last week to have the case sealed, citing that media attention has created a "bias" against the 84-year-old.
Lester is due back in court on June 1.
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