‘Buckets of tears’: mother of Black teen shot after going to wrong address speaks

The mother of Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager who was shot by a white man after ringing the man’s doorbell, says that her son has been mentally replaying the shooting “over and over”.

Cleo Nagbe says that her son is still facing physical challenges from last week’s attack, when Andrew Lester, a white Kansas City resident, shot Yarl twice, once in the head and once in the arm, after the 16-year-old went to a mistaken address to pick up his siblings.

In an interview on Tuesday with CBS Mornings, Nagbe said her son was still coping with the “residual effects” of being shot in the head. The bullet was not removed from Yarl for more than 12 hours, and the resulting injury may remain with her son “for quite a while”, she said.

Nagbe added that Yarl communicates when he wants to, but “mostly he just sits there and stares and the buckets of tears just rolls down his eyes”.

“You can see that he is just replaying the situation over and over again,” Nagbe said. “And that just doesn’t stop my tears either, because when you see your kid just sits there and constantly he just – tears are just rolling from both sides of his eyes, there’s nothing you can say to him.”

Yarl is surrounded by a team of medical professionals, Nagbe added, as well as his uncle, aunt and Nagbe herself, who has been a nurse for 20 years.

Since being released from the hospital, Yarl has been recovering at home.

The 16-year-old honor student and marching band member spoke with Joe Biden on Monday, with the president saying he would pray for Yarl and his family and call for justice, reported the Kansas City Star.

Lester was charged with assault in the first degree – which is Missouri’s term for attempted murder, according to kansascity.com – and armed criminal action. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of assault in the first degree and a maximum of 15 years in prison for the armed criminal action charge.

Lester turned himself over to police on Tuesday, according to the Clay county sheriff’s office, but was freed on a bond of $200,000 just a few hours later.

Authorities announced Lester’s charges in a Monday press conference, with the prosecuting attorney, Zachary Thompson, adding that the shooting had a “racial component”.

But Thompson added that charging documents did not say that Lester’s actions were racially motivated.

“We understand how frustrating this has been, but I can assure you the criminal justice system is working and will continue to work,” Thompson said.

The shooting has outraged many in Kansas City and across the country, with many calling it another example of racist violence against Black children.

On 13 April, shortly after 10pm CT, Yarl had mistakenly arrived to Lester’s residence at 115th Terrace instead of going to 115th Street, where he was picking up his twin younger brothers from a friend’s home.

Yarl told officers that he rang Lester’s doorbell and waited, according to a statement Yarl gave to a detective while recovering in the hospital on Friday.

According to Yarl, Lester answered the door holding a firearm.

“[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,” wrote the detective in the probable cause statement.

Lester then shot Yarl a second time as the teenager was bleeding on the ground.

While running away, Yarl heard Lester yell: “Don’t come around here,” according to the statement.

No words were exchanged between the two before the shooting.

Yarl had to run to several homes before finding a neighbor who would help the critically injured teen.

Even so, Yarl was instructed to lie on the ground and put his hands in the air while someone called for help, the New York Times reported. The teenager then passed out.

Yarl is now in a stable condition, was released from the hospital and is recovering at home.

Yarl’s aunt, Faith Spoonmore, wrote in a GoFundMe page that the teenager was doing physically well but has emotional trauma from the incident that would require further treatment.

Prosecutors charged Lester nearly four days after Yarl’s shooting took place, and he turned himself over to authorities on Tuesday, the sheriff’s office running the local jail said.

His bond had been pre-set at $200,000.