Ralph Yarl shoots suspect Andrew Lester ‘surface of conspiracies’ – live update

Authorities say 24-year-old Robert Louis Singletary is “armed and dangerous” after the incident in North Carolina.

Andrew Lester’s ex-wife has broken her silence to reveal why she isn’t surprised the white owner shot black teenager Ralph Yarl last week.

Mary Clayton, who was married to Mr. Lester when she was young and had three children with him, toldThe New York Times she was “always afraid of” her ex-husband.

During their 14-year marriage, she said he had anger issues and would break objects in their house.

He called the police at least once about his angry outbursts, but said nothing was done about it and was told that Mr. Lester could do whatever he wanted in his house.

“I was always afraid of it,” he said, adding of the shooting: “I’m not surprised what happened.”

One of the grandsons of the man accused of shooting black teenager Ralph Yarl said his grandfather believed in a “crazy” conspiracy theory involving US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci.

Klint Ludwig, one of Lester’s grandsons, said he was estranged from his grandfather because he had embraced right-wing conspiracy theories.

Black teenager Ralph Yarl was shot by a white homeowner after he accidentally rang the wrong doorbell while going to pick up his siblings.

An accidental visit by a 16-year-old to Andrew Lester’s home in the Kansas City suburb of Northland quickly turned violent and the high school student was hospitalized with serious injuries.

Instead of going to a home in the 1100 block of Northeast 115th Terrace in Kansas City, Missouri, to pick up his siblings, he mistakenly went to Northeast 115th Street, police said.

Now prosecutors have filed charges against the owner.

Here is everything we know about the suspect:

The family of suspected shooter Andrew Lester has said they are “disgusted” by the 84-year-old’s shooting of black teenager Ralph Yarl.

Lester’s grandson, Klint Ludwig, spoke to CNN on Thursday about his reaction when he learned his grandfather was responsible for the shooting that shocked the nation and renewed debates on racial justice, gun rights and gun laws. assumption.

“I was upset. I thought it was terrible,” Ludwig said.

“My family and I stand with Ralph Yarl and seek justice. This is a horrible tragedy, it should never have happened.”

Read the full story here:

Last week, Ralph Yarl was found lying in a hospital bed with gunshot wounds to his left forehead and right arm.

Heartbreaking photos showed the black teen with tubes coming out of him and his head and arm wrapped in bandages.

He is alive, but his family says he has a long road to recovery ahead of him, a recovery that threatens to derail his dreams of going to college to pursue a career in engineering.

So how did it end up here?

He went to pick up his younger siblings at a friend’s house, accidentally rang the wrong doorbell, and was shot twice by Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old white homeowner.

It’s a case of terror that has led protesters to take to the streets, civil rights attorneys to back the 16-year-old’s family, and Hollywood celebrities using their platform to amplify the case, all demanding justice for the black adolescent and for the white. homeowner to face charges.

Here’s what you need to know about the case:

James Lynch, 42, says he was getting ready for bed when he heard shouting outside his home and saw the black teenager knocking on a neighbor’s door for help.

The father-of-three says he ran outside, jumped over a fence and across the street to help Yarl, holding the boy’s hand until paramedics arrived.

“I thought he was dead,” Lynch told NBC News. “No one deserves to lie there like this. He hasn’t even started living his life yet. He didn’t deserve to get shot.”

Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump has spoken out comparing the shootings of Ralph Yarl and Kaylin Gillis.

Crump, who represents Ralph and his family, said race shouldn’t affect whether justice is served in those cases.

“Race doesn’t change the need for justice in any of these cases,” he told The National Desk.

“If you were outraged by the shooting of Ralph Yarl, you should be outraged by the shooting death of Kaylin Gillis.”

He continued: “I hope the media covers both cases equally. I hope everyone respects the value of their lives equally. That is what humanity requires. It doesn’t matter if the color of your skin is black or white.

Comparisons have been made between the two cases.

Black teenager Ralph was shot twice by a white homeowner in Kansas City when he headed in the wrong direction.

Meanwhile, 20-year-old white Gillis was fatally shot by a white homeowner in upstate New York when she and her friends pulled into the wrong driveway.

Missouri has a “stand your ground” law that allows an individual to “use physical force upon another person when and to the extent that he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to defend himself or a third person from what he or she reasonably believes it to be the use or imminent use of unlawful force by that other person.”

Under the law, the individual does not have a duty to withdraw before using force on the other person.

The laws of standing your ground and self-defense are controversial and have been used to clear people in high-profile cases.

For example, Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty for killing two men and wounding another in a shooting at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020.

Prior to this, George Zimmerman avoided conviction for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012.

Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves said at a news conference Sunday that investigators were reviewing whether or not Andrew Lester was protected under state law. He was charged on Monday.

The teen spent days in the hospital while the white owner, Andrew Lester, 84, still walks free.

My colleague raquel sharp reports: