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The Missouri man accused of shooting Ralph Yarl after the Black teenager rang his doorbell “holds racist tendencies and beliefs,” one of his grandsons told CNN on Thursday.
Andrew Lester, who is white, pleaded not guilty to charges of assault in the first degree and armed criminal action on Wednesday, after authorities said he shot Yarl in the forehead and right arm on April 13 in Kansas City.
Yarl, 16, had been sent to pick up his younger brothers at a friend's house but got the address wrong and arrived at Lester's house instead. (He was supposed to go to Northeast 115th Terrace but went to Northeast 115th Street.) After ringing the doorbell, Lester, 84, opened the door and shot Yarl twice, according to law enforcement officials.
Lester told police he was "scared to death" by the boy's size and believed Yarl was attempting to break into his house.
The Clay County prosecutor overseeing the case, Zachary Thompson, said the shooting had a “racial component.” And Klint Ludwig, one of Lester’s grandsons, appears to agree.
“The warning signs were there," Ludwig told CNN on Thursday. "I wasn’t shocked when I heard the news. I believe he held — holds — racist tendencies and beliefs.”
He continued:
A lot of people of that generation are caught up in this 24-hour news cycle of fear and paranoia perpetuated by some other news stations and he was fully into that, sit and watch Fox News all day every day blaring in his living room. And I think that stuff really kind of reinforces this negative view of minority groups and leads people, it doesn’t necessarily lead people to be racist, but it reinforces and galvanizes racist people and their beliefs.
(You can read a bit more on concerns about Fox News' ability to radicalize people in this ReidOut Blog.)
Ludwig said people too often "get away with killing unarmed, innocent Black people ... People need to speak out, not make any excuses for this kind of behavior and this violence.”
Lester’s attorney has not responded to CNN’s requests for comment as of Friday afternoon.
Ludwig's comments offer a perfect segue to an interview his older brother, Daniel, gave to The Kansas City Star. Daniel Ludwig said his grandfather wouldn’t have shot Yarl if the boy hadn’t “gone for the door.” Yarl's attorney, Lee Merritt, said Yarl "never" tried to open the door. And thus far, there's no evidence to suggest he did.
Daniel Ludwig seemed to suggest the teen might somehow be equally to blame for the shooting, saying "a bunch of mistakes in a row ... resulted in a tragedy. I mean, a lot of mistakes all the way around, unfortunately.”
In that same article, Klint Ludwig explained why approaching the wrong house shouldn’t warrant a near-death experience.
“Ralph Yarl did nothing wrong by showing up at the wrong house, which is an honest, easy mistake," the younger Ludwig said. "And the fact that it was almost a death sentence is disgusting."