The deadly mistake of missing the door in the United States

There are mistakes that are very expensive in the United States.

Mistakes as simple as going to the wrong house.

Two local tragedies, in which everything began with an innocent mistake on the part of the victims, have managed to capture the disputed national attention this week, and have reopened the debate on self-defense in a country with more weapons than citizens.

Last Thursday, in Kansas City, Missouri, a 16-year-old black boy named Ralph Yarl was shot twice at point-blank range, one to the head, by a white man, Andrew D. Lester's .32-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol. , 84 years old.

The parents had sent the boy, who survived the attack, to pick up his two younger twin brothers.

Yarl was a victim of "racism", according to prosecutor Zachary Thompson, but also of the subtleties of the drab street of deep America: he thought he was at 50 115th Terrace when in fact he had rung the bell of the same number on 115th Street , two addresses separated by one block.

He opened the door Lester, who told police that he pulled the trigger because he was "scared to death" upon checking the "size and age" of the visitor.

He stumbled off the property, bloody, before collapsing in the middle of the street, and a neighbor called 911.

The suspect was released 24 hours later after taking his statement, but the pressure of the protests over the weekend in front of his home had an effect: the old man was charged on Monday with two felonies.

For one of them he could end up sentenced to life imprisonment.

Andrew Lester, suspected of shooting a black teenager in Kansas City.KANSAS CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT (REUTERS)

The other incident claimed the life of 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis, who took the wrong driveway Saturday night.

She had gone out to a party with three friends.

When the group realized her mistake, they began the maneuver to turn around, but it was too late.

It turned out that the owner of the driveway, Kevin Monahan, 65, also owned a gun.

He left his home in rural Hebron, in a remote part of New York State, and fired at them at least twice.

The police have accused him, also this Monday, of murder.

Both suspect and victim were white.

The two events have put the spotlight on the controversial self-defense laws known as "Stand-Your-Ground" (literally: defend your ground) and "Castle Doctine" (the castle doctrine), mainly because few in the United States care there are too many forces left to argue about arms control.

Those rules are in force in 25 states -including Missouri, but not New York-, which joined an initiative pioneered by Florida in 2005, by enacting legislation that, respectively, changed the rules for coexistence in spaces public and expanded the right, as old as the country, that assists any citizen who is at home to defend themselves by attacking an intruder.

“[Stand-Your-Ground laws] allow anyone who believes their life is in danger to use deadly force in self-defense, and completely eliminate the duty to withdraw in a public space, such as a park or plaza, to avoid a confrontation,” according to the Brady Center for the Prevention of Gun Violence.

“In many cases, they also allow someone to actively pursue someone they perceive as a threat until they hunt them down.

They are based on the idea of ​​'shoot first and ask questions later', and in them lies the conviction that lethal force should be used instinctively, rather than left as a last resort”.

Those rules have led to an 11% increase in gun deaths in the United States, according to a study published last year in the Journal

.

It has also served to exculpate homicide suspects whose victims were unarmed.

Perhaps the most famous is the case of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old black youth who died in 2012 on the outskirts of Orlando (Florida) from shots fired by a Hispanic neighborhood watchman, who was acquitted of all charges.

That tragedy lit the first fuse of the Black Lives Matter movement and the name Martin ended up in the pantheon of the martyrs of racist violence in the United States and chanted by the protesters in the protests that followed the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

The tragedy of the African-American boy shot to death last week in Kansas City has also refreshed that memory.

Recovering from his injuries at home from surgery that removed the two bullets from his head and arm, Yarl received a call from President Joe Biden on Monday, while Vice President Kamala Harris tweeted: "No child should live in fear of being shot for ringing the wrong bell."

Famous people such as actress Halle Berry or model Naomi Campbell also spoke out on social networks.

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A post shared by Dr Naomi Campbell (@naomi)

The matter is already in the hands of Ben Crump, a prominent lawyer, famous for his defense of the civil rights of African-Americans.

On Sunday, hundreds of protesters rallied outside the home of Lester, who has not been seen in the neighborhood since last Thursday.

These days, a third case has also emerged in which the error in one direction and the naturalness with which American society seems to live with violence on a daily basis have led to tragedy.

It happened on April 5 in Farmington (New Mexico), when a police patrol responded to a routine call for help.

It was at 5308, but officers pounded on the door of 5305 Valley View Avenue.

It was opened by a 52-year-old armed man who was killed by the three policemen.

In a video released over the weekend by the Framington authorities, the uniformed officers are seen and heard debating moments before opening fire on whether the direction they are in is correct, until one of them settles the discussion. laughing, "Don't tell me I'm wrong, man."

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