As soon as Kansas City, Mo., mechanic James Lynch realized Ralph Yarl was in trouble, he rushed to his side.
“I wanted to make sure Ralph wasn’t alone because nobody deserved to be treated that way,” Lynch, 42, tells PEOPLE.
Just before 10 p.m. on April 13, Ralph had mistakenly gone to N.E. 115th St. instead of N.E. 115th Terrace to pick up his little brothers from a friend’s house.
He rang the bell and when the door opened, the homeowner, Andrew Lester, 84, fired a handgun at him through the glass of the storm door, authorities say in a probable cause affidavit obtained by KSHB.
Lester shot the boy a second time while he lay on the ground in a pool of blood and smashed glass, say authorities.
Though he had been shot in the head and arm, Ralph somehow mustered the strength to go door to door in the neighborhood, screaming that he had been shot, his aunt, Faith Spoonmore wrote In a GoFundMe post she set up for her nephew.
Lynch heard the commotion and raced over to Ralph.
“I wanted to make sure that child was not alone,” he says. “You could see that he was a child when I walked up to him.”
In her GoFundMe post, Spoonmore wrote that her nephew didn’t find immediate help. “Unfortunately, he had to run to 3 different homes before someone finally agreed to help him after he was told to lie on the ground with his hands up,” she wrote.
Lynch says he doesn’t know how many houses Ralph went to after he had gotten shot.
“I know that I was the first person who got to this kid and that’s really, really sad,” he said.
Lester is now facing felony charges of first-degree assault and armed criminal action, Thompson announced Monday. CNN reports that he turned himself in on Tuesday.
It is unclear whether he has retained an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
Race Played a Role, Says DA
Lester, who is White, told police he shot Ralph, a Black teen, because he was “scared to death,” according to the probable cause statement.
“I can tell you there was a racial component to this case,” Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson said at a news conference Monday night.
Lester told authorities he had just gotten into bed when he heard the doorbell ring, the probable cause statement says.
He grabbed a handgun and then went to the door, it says.
When he opened the main door and saw Ralph, “He stated he believed someone was attempting to break into the house, and shot twice (through a storm door) within a few seconds of opening the (main) door,” the probable cause statement says, according to CNN.
Lester said he didn’t say anything to Ralph before shooting him, KSHB reports.
The probable cause statement states that Lester told police that shooting the teen was “the last thing he wanted to do,” but he was fearful because of Ralph’s size and age, KMBC reports.
Ralph was shot twice — in the forehead and right arm, according to authorities.
Police said Lester appeared “visibly upset and repeatedly expressed concern for the victim,” who was initially listed in critical condition, according to the probable cause statement.
On Friday, Ralph told a detective who came to see him at the hospital that he rang the doorbell of the house at N.E. 115th St. and waited for the door to open, according to the probable cause statement.
“(He) stated the male inside took a long time but finally opened the door holding a firearm. He stated he was immediately shot in the head and fell to the ground,” the detective wrote in the statement.
Ralph told police that Lester allegedly told him, “Don’t come around here,” the statement says.
It’s unclear when Lester allegedly said that.
Lynch says his heart goes out to Ralph.
“It was unfair that this happened,” he says.
