By Margaret Stafford and Jim Salter -
The Associated Press
The mother of Ralph Yarl, the black teenager who was shot by a white man when he called the wrong house in Kansas City (Missouri) when he was going to pick up his younger siblings, revealed Tuesday that her son is crying "seas of tears" in the hospital where he was admitted while assimilating what happened to him.
"Ralph is doing quite well," Cleo Nagbe told CBS News, "physically the mornings are hard, but he's in good spirits.
I try to catch his mood.
He is in very good hands."
Nagbe said the trauma from the attack lingers but "he is 'able to communicate' even though 'most of the time he just sits and stares and his eyes are crying floods of tears.'" You can see he's reliving the situation once and again, and that doesn't stop my tears either," his mother recounted.
Kansas City police said the shooter, identified as 84-year-old Andrew Lester, has turned himself in and is in custody to be charged with two criminal charges.
The assault charge carries a penalty of up to life in prison.
That of armed criminal action has a penalty range of three to 15 years in prison.
Lester was not charged with a hate crime.
Ralph Yarl.via Ben Crump Law
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The shooting occurred around 10 p.m.
According to Police Chief Stacey Graves, the teen's parents asked her to pick up his twin brothers at a house at 115 Terrace Street.
Yarl mistakenly went to 115th Street. When he rang the bell, Lester came to the door and shot him first in the forehead and then in the right forearm.
The man, who was initially detained after the incident and later released, told police he lived alone and was "scared to death" when he saw a black man on his front porch.
According to what he said, he thought someone was trying to break in to steal.
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The man did not exchange words with the teenager before shooting him, but when he was already escaping from the house, the young man assures that he heard him yelling: "Don't come this way."
The young man went to "numerous" houses asking for help before finding a neighbor, identified as James Lynch, who called the police and assisted him.
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His wife, Tiffany Lynch, confirmed that her husband heard screaming and saw Yarl pounding on the door of another house.
"I heard someone yell, 'Help, help, I've been shot!'" said Lynch, who is white. The father of three ran outside and found the young man covered in blood. He took his pulse, and when another neighbor came out With towels, he helped stem the bleeding until paramedics arrived.
“He just wants the family to know that Ralph wasn't alone,” he said.
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The shooting outraged many in Kansas City and across the country.
Civic and political leaders, including President Joe Biden, demanded justice.
Clay County District Attorney Zachary Thompson said Monday there was a "racial component" to the shooting, though prosecutors later said there was no such element in the criminal charges.
“The police are not treating this case the same way blacks accused of murder are treated,” Nimrod Chapel Jr., president of the Missouri National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said in a statement. .
“A black suspect would have gone to jail,” he added.
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The Rev. Vernon Howard, president of the South Kansas City Christian Leadership Conference, called the shooting a “heinous and hate-filled crime.”
Vice President Kamala Harris wrote on Twitter that "no child should live in fear of being shot for ringing the wrong bell."
The Missouri Senate observed a minute's silence for Yarl on Monday.
The civil rights lawyers for Yarl's family, Ben Crump and Lee Merritt, said in a statement that Biden called the young man's family and offered "prayers for his health and for justice."
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Louis Nina McDonnell, defense attorney, said Missouri's hate crimes statute is only used to enhance low-level misdemeanor or felony charges.
Since first degree assault is a Class A felony—the highest level, punishable up to life in prison—filing a hate crime would have no impact on the sentence if convicted.
McDonnell expects Lester's attorneys to claim self-defense under Missouri's
Stand Your Ground
law .
He said the law allows the use of deadly force if a person fears for their life.
“That's going to be a big hurdle to get over,” McDonnell said.
"The defendant was at home and expressed that he was afraid," he said.
As of Tuesday morning, a GoFundMe page set up for Yarl's medical bills had raised $2.8 million from 75,000 donations.
Yarl is a Missouri All-State Band honorable mention bass clarinetist who plays multiple instruments in the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of Kansas City, Spoonmore wrote.
A statement from the North Kansas City School District described Yarl as "an excellent student and talented musician."