Andrew Lester, the white man who shot a Black 16-year-old when the teen rang his doorbell, surrendered to police in Clay County, Missouri, a day after charges were filed in the case that sparked widespread outrage in the United States.
According to a statement issued by the local sheriff’s office on Tuesday, Andrew Lester, 84, is being held at the county detention center.
Meanwhile, civil rights advocates, celebrities, and local officials have all expressed their support for 16-year-old Ralph Yarl.
Cleo Nagbe, Yarl’s mother, said earlier on Tuesday that her son was recovering at home after being released from the hospital. According to Yarl’s family, the teenager mistook Lester’s house for a home a block away, where he was supposed to pick up his twin brothers around 10 p.m. on April 13. Lester opened fire when Yarl rang the doorbell, striking him twice in the head and arm.
Despite having escaped a more devastating wound from the close range attack, Nagbe said the “injury is extensive and the residual effect of that injury [is] gonna stay with him for quite a while”.
“He got a couple of bullets inside his body instead of a couple of twins coming out and giving him a hug,” Nagbe said during an interview on the CBS television network.
Since the attack, civil rights advocates and Yarl’s lawyers have questioned why Andrew Lester was initially released in the wake of the shooting and charged only four days later after protests drew national attention to the case.
Civil rights lawyer Lee Merritt, who is representing Yarl’s family, said on Tuesday that he would meet with prosecutors later in the day to discuss why Lester was not charged with attempted murder. The 84-year-old Andrew Lester faces instead counts of assault in the first degree and armed criminal action.