Outrage as Black teen shot after going to wrong address to pick up siblings

The parents of Ralph Yarl, 16, say their son was left for dead after the incident last Thursday when he went to pick up his younger twin brothers from a play date in Kansas City and called at the wrong house.

Stacey Graves, chief of Kansas City police, defended the release of the unnamed homeowner on Sunday, citing Missouri law that states a person can be held only 24 hours before being formally charged or released.

But she said her department was working quickly to prepare evidence for the Clay county prosecutor as its felony investigation continued.

According to his family, Yarl, a high school junior with a passion for music, was given the address to pick up his 11-year-old brothers but mistakenly went to a house on 115th Street instead of 115th Terrace and was shot after knocking at the door.

She said he was shot a second time after he fell to the ground, was able to get up and run away, and knocked at three homes before someone helped him.

By lunchtime on Monday, the appeal had surpassed $1.2m.

Quinton Lucas, the mayor of Kansas City, said members of the police department attended the Sunday protest to listen to community concerns.

Merritt, a Texas-based civil rights attorney previously represented the family of Cameron Lamb, a Black citizen fatally shot by a Kansas City detective, Eric DeValkenaere, in 2019 in a traffic stop.

DeValkenaere was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison.

Guardian reporter Sam Levin and The Associated Press contributed to this report