TRAGIC SHOOTING Ralph Yarl’s mother speaks

Associated Press

Te mother of Ralph Yarl, the Black teenager shot when he mistakenly went to the wrong Kansas City, Missouri, home to pick up his younger brothers, said her son is crying “buckets of tears” as he comes to grips with what happened to him.

“Ralph is doing considerably well,” Cleo Nagbe told “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King. “Physically, mornings are hard, but his spirits are in a good place. I borrow from his spirits.”

Nagbe said the trauma remains evident. She said her 16-year-old son is “able to communicate mostly when he feels like it, but mostly he just sits there and stares and the buckets of tears just roll down his eyes.”

“You can see that he is just replaying the situation over and over again, and that just doesn’t stop my tears either,” she said.

Te shooter, 84-year-old Andrew Lester is behind bars afer being charged with frst-degree assault and armed criminal action. Some civil rights leaders urged a hate crime charge but ofcials said frst-degree assault is a higher-level crime with a longer sentence — up to life in prison.

Yarl’s parents asked him to pick up his twin brothers at a home on 115th Terrace on April 13.

Te honor student and all-state band member, mistakenly went to 115th Street. When he rang the bell, Lester came to the door and shot Yarl in the forehead — then shot him again, in the right forearm. Lester told police he lives alone and was “scared to death” when he saw a Black male on the porch and thought someone was trying to break in, according to the probable cause statement. No words were exchanged before the shooting, but aferward, as Yarl got up to run, he heard Lester yell, “Don’t come around here,” the statement said.

Yarl ran to “multiple” homes asking for help before finding someone who would call the police, the statement said.

Te shooting outraged many in Kansas City and across the country. Civic and political leaders — including President Joe Biden — demanded justice.

Te civil rights attorneys for Yarl’s family, Ben Crump and Lee Merritt, said in a statement that Biden called the teen’s family and ofered “prayers for Ralph’s health and for justice.” Vice President Kamala Harris wrote on Twitter that “No child should ever live in fear of being shot for ringing the wrong doorbell.”

“Te police are not treating this case in the same way Black people accused of murder are treated,” Missouri NAACP President Nimrod Chapel Jr. said in a statement. “A Black suspect would have been in jail.”

Te assault charge carries a penalty of up to life in prison. A GoFundMe page set up for Yarl has raised $2.9 million.