Elderly Man Charged in Front-Door Shooting of Black Teenager in Kansas City
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — An 84-year-old white man in Kansas City has been charged with first-degree assault for shooting a Black teen who mistakenly went to the man's home to pick up his younger brothers. Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson said at a news conference Monday that there was a "racial component" when Andrew Lester twice shot 16-year-old Ralph Yarl, but nothing in the charging documents says the shooting was racially motivated. Yarl is recovering from the Thursday night shooting at home after being released from the hospital. The shooting outraged many in Kansas City and across the country. The assault charge carries a penalty of up to life in prison. "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 outraged many in Kansas City and across the country. Civic and political leaders — including President Joe Biden — demanded justice. Some, including lawyers for Yarl, pressed the racial dimension of the case.
Yarl, an honor student and all-state band member, was supposed to pick up his two younger brothers when he approached the wrong house at roughly 10 pm. Lester came to the door and shot Yarl in the forehead — then shot him again, in the right forearm. No words were exchanged before the shooting, the probable cause statement said. But afterward, as Yarl got up to run, he heard Lester yell, "Don't come around here," the statement said.Yarl ran to "multiple" homes asking for help before finding someone who would call the police, the statement said.
Rev. Vernon Howard, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City, called the shooting a "heinous and hate-filled crime." Vice President Kamala Harris wrote on Twitter that "No child should ever live in fear of being shot for ringing the wrong doorbell." The Missouri Senate held a moment of silence for Yarl on Monday. The civil rights attorneys for Yarl's family, Ben Crump and Lee Merritt, said in a statement that Biden called Yarl's family and offered "prayers for Ralph's health and for justice." "Gun violence against unarmed Black individuals must stop," the lawyers' statement read. "Our children should feel safe, not as though they are being hunted."
Yarl's supporters plan to hold a rally Tuesday evening in Kansas City. The assault charge carries a penalty of up to life in prison. Lester also was charged with armed criminal action, which has a penalty range of three to 15 years in prison. Lester was not charged with a hate crime. Thompson said Missouri's statute is considered a lesser felony than first-degree assault, and carries a less severe penalty. Missouri is among roughly 30 states with "Stand Your Ground" laws, which allow for the use of deadly force in self-defense, but the prosecutor determined the shooting was not in self defense. An arrest warrant was issued but Lester was not yet in custody, Thompson said.
Lester told police that he lives alone and had just gone to bed when he heard his doorbell, according to the probable cause statement. He said he picked up his gun and went to the door, where he saw a Black male pulling on the exterior storm door handle and thought someone was breaking in. A number for Lester was not in service on Monday evening and it was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney to speak on his behalf.
The shooting happened in a middle class neighborhood in north Kansas City. Yarl didn't have a phone with him and went to the wrong block, his aunt, Faith Spoonmore, wrote on a GoFundMe page set up to help pay medical bills. By Monday afternoon, $1.4 million had been raised.
Police Chief Stacey Graves said that Yarl's parents asked him to pick up his brothers at a home on 115th Terrace, but he mistakenly went to 115th Street, the Kansas City Star reported.
Yarl is a bass clarinetist who earned Missouri All-State Band honorable mention and who plays several instruments in the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of Kansas City, Spoonmore wrote. A statement from the North Kansas City School District described Yarl as "an excellent student and talented musician." Spoonmore said Yarl is "doing well physically" but has a lot of trauma to overcome emotionally.
By Monday afternoon, the home where the shooting happened had been vandalized. Black spray-paint on the side of the house showed a heart with "16" in the middle. Eggs splattered the front windows and the door.
A message seeking comment from Republican Governor Mike Parson, a staunch gun rights supporter, wasn't immediately returned.
Crump, who has represented families in several high-profile cases of Black people being shot, including those of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, questioned why the shooter wasn't arrested and charged immediately. "We all believe that if the roles were reversed and this was a Black citizen who shot a 16-year-old for merely ringing his doorbell, they would have arrested him, and he wouldn't have slept in his bed that night," Crump said. (Read more.)
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Kansas Looks for Ways to Ease Statewide Nursing Shortage
WICHITA, Kan. (KNS/KMUW) - Almost 25% of Kansas nursing jobs are unfilled — the highest rate in the past decade. Efforts are underway to ease the shortage. Government, health care employers and state universities are gathering at a series of meetings this year to create a plan to combat that crisis. Even businesses that don’t operate in health care are encouraged to join the conversation. KU School of Nursing Dean Sally Maliski says employees and their families are all touched by health care - and nursing is the largest part of that workforce. “We know that healthy people are more productive. We know that communities in which health care is available, do better economically," she said. Maliski hopes engaging with middle and high school students can get more people into nursing careers.
The University of Kansas School of Nursing projects the state’s nursing shortage will persist in the coming years, adding up to more than 53,000 openings by 2026. Kansas is one of about a dozen states without a nursing workforce center. Maliski says a workforce center would help target areas where nurses are needed most and ease the shortage. “These centers support programs that develop pathways to bring students from various areas into nursing," she said. Maliski says the goal is to have KU open such a center by this fall.
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Kansas Governor Signs Law to Give More Legal Rights to Child Sex Abuse Victims
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - Kansas Democratic Governor Laura Kelly has signed a bill into law that provides more legal support to victims of child sex crimes. The bill received unanimous support from the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature. The bill removes the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution of child sex abuse. It also provides more time for victims to pursue civil lawsuits stemming from sex crimes against children. Current law requires those lawsuits to be filed before the victim turns 21. The bill extends that timeframe to 31 years of age. The changes come after a Kansas Bureau of Investigation report documented decades of sexual abuse by certain Catholic priests in the state. It found that the current limits to file charges hampered prosecution of the crimes.
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Kansas Student Behavior Getting Worse Post Pandemic
WICHITA, Kan. (KNS/KMUW) - Kansas schools are reporting a surge of disruptive behavior by students, including violence against teachers. The subject has caught the attention of teachers unions and state lawmakers — but solutions are hard to find. Kansas teachers say student behavior has gotten much worse since the COVID pandemic. Some students are lashing out at classmates and teachers. “Pushing, shoving, hitting, slapping, throwing item - the amount of physical violence has increased so much," said Jackie Tabor, who has taught elementary and middle school in Wichita for about 12 years. Schools across Kansas have been reporting more disruptive and even violent incidents. At the state’s largest school district in Wichita, this school year began with several large brawls and weapons arrests. (Read more.)
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Section 8 Housing Vouchers in Kansas Often Expire Before They Can Be Used
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - Section 8 housing vouchers are supposed to help Kansans find affordable housing, but many vouchers expire before they can be used. Vouchers are expiring because Kansas lacks enough affordable housing and landlords are not taking them as often. Rising rents mean fewer apartments are eligible for the program. In Johnson County last year, 60% of the vouchers expired before they could be used. In other counties, it’s between 30-50%. Kamber Corpening spent a year calling almost 100 places trying to find someone to take her voucher. “I had horrible luck finding an apartment complex, much less duplex that accepted Section 8 vouchers, a lot of places stopped accepting them," she said. Tenants and affordable housing groups are calling for more affordable housing stock and more collaboration between housing authorities and landlords.
KC METRO AREA: Last year, 60% of the vouchers in Johnson County expired before they were used. In Wyandotte County, the number was 50%.
WICHITA AREA: Wichita Housing Authority says in 2022, around 40% of its vouchers expired before being used.
SOUTHEAST KANSAS: In 2022, the Southeast Kansas Community Action Program said 40% of its vouchers expired.
TOPEKA AREA: The Topeka Housing Authority says around 30% of its vouchers expire in a typical year.
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$2.6 Million Awarded to Address Homelessness in Kansas
TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has released a list of communities that will receive federal grants and housing vouchers to help address rural homelessness. The USDA’s program will bring housing vouchers worth more than $2.5 million dollars to three Kansas communities. WIBW TV reports that the entities receiving housing vouchers in Kansas include: the Lawrence/Douglas County Housing Authority, the Manhattan Housing Authority and the Pittsburg Housing Authority. HUD officials say the grants and vouchers will give the communities tools to help people who are experiencing homelessness move into permanent housing. The federal agency says that nearly 70,000 Emergency Housing Vouchers have been offered to help homeless families since the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 began.
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‘Ring of Fire’ Eclipse to Appear Above Kansas
TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – Later this year, Kansans can catch a glimpse of a "Ring of Fire" in the sky. KSNT reports that Kansans are set to experience an annular solar eclipse this fall when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun while the moon is at its farthest point from Earth. According to NASA, the eclipse, also known as a “ring of fire,” will cross over North, Central and South America October 14 and be partially visible to residents of the Sunflower State. Kansans should able to see 60-80% of it when it occurs, depending on where they live in the state.
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USDA's Hardiness Map Guides Planting and Now... That Map Is Changing
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - The hardiness zones that signal which plants grow well in Kansas are changing. The USDA’s hardiness map guides people on what to plant and when. But Climate Central, a group of scientists, says hardiness zones are shifting. Topeka’s winters are now as warm as Wichita’s were 50 years ago. And Wichita slid from a solid zone 6 to a borderline, warmer zone 7. That’s according to Climate Central, not the USDA map. The group says milder winters will affect crops. And invasive plants like kudzu will keep spreading in the Midwest.
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NOAA Predicts Hot Spring and Summer in Kansas
WASHINGTON,DC (KNS) - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, is forecasting a warmer-than-normal spring and summer in Kansas. NOAA, issues seasonal climate predictions every three months. The agency found most of Kansas has a 30% to 40% chance of seeing above-average temperatures in April through June. Experts at the climate prediction center say that the drought in southwestern Kansas could be intensifying the state’s warmer temperatures because there is no surface water to evaporate. The US Drought Monitor recently released maps showing the drought in Kansas is larger and more severe than anywhere in the country. The agency says it expects the drought and warm temperatures to continue through April and May but hopes to see improvement by the end of June.
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Man Dies After Shooting in East Topeka
TOPEKA (KSNT) – One man has died after a shooting in east Topeka. Topeka police say the shooting happened Monday night, southeast of downtown. KSNT reports that officers responding to reports of gun fire found a man suffering from a life-threatening gunshot wound. The victim was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. His name has not been released.
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Survey: Fewer Kansas Teens Smoking or Drinking Alcohol
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A new survey indicates that Kansas teenagers are smoking and drinking at historically low rates. The 2023 Kansas Communities That Care survey asked about 30,000 Kansas teens about their mental health and their drug and alcohol use. 73% said they never drank alcohol at all in their lifetimes. About 6.5% of the teenagers said they had smoked tobacco at least once but that’s down from nearly 50% who said they had smoked tobacco in the late 1990's. About 9% of the respondents said they had smoked marijuana at some time in their lives. The number of students who reported feeling depressed dropped only slightly to 35% this year and the number of students who reported having thoughts of suicide decreased to 30%. About 11% of respondents said they had tried to kill themselves at some point.
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Proposal Could Help DACA Kids Gain Health Insurance
WICHITA, Kan. (KNS) — Thousands of immigrants in Kansas brought to the U.S. illegally as children, could become newly eligible for government-backed health insurance. DACA recipients, known as “dreamers,” have previously been excluded from Medicaid and Affordable Care Act health insurance plans. Now, a federal proposal to expand eligibility could help thousands of DACA recipients in Kansas gain coverage. Advocates say the recipients work and pay taxes but some of them are not able to get jobs that offer health insurance benefits. The Biden administration has announced it will remove those barriers, possibly by the end of the month. Nearly 5,000 DACA recipients live in Kansas. Nationally, almost half of them are uninsured.
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Kansas Senator Releases Report on Origins of COVID-19
WASHINGTON (WIBW) – Kansas Senator Roger Marshall says the origins of COVID-19 remain undetermined. The Republican sentaor just released a 300-page report on the investigation into the beginnings of the pandemic. WIBW TV reports that Marshall led the push for the investigation by a U.S. Senate committee. The report examines the two primary theories about the how the virus started. One is that the virus occurred naturally in China’s wet markets in Wuhan. The other prominent theory is that the virus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan where coronaviruses are studied. Marshall says the report includes circumstantial evidence supporting the lab leak theory more than the natural cause theory.
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Olathe Police Investigate Double Homicide
OLATHE, Kan. (KCTV/KPR) - Police are investigating a double homicide over the weekend in Olathe. Officers responded to the scene of the shooting near North Rogers Road and West 126th Street Saturday afternoon. They found a woman who was pronounced dead at the scene; and a man who later died at a local hospital from an apparent gunshot wound. KCTV reports that this incident follows three homicides in Kansas City, Missouri, between Friday night and Saturday morning. Olathe police are requesting that anyone with information regarding the investigation is call the Olathe Police Department or the TIPS Hotline at (816) 474-8477.
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Kansas Governor Vetoes Bill Related to the Care of Babies Born Alive During Abortions
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP/KPR) — Kansas Governor Laura Kelly vetoed a bill on Friday that could have penalized doctors accused of not providing enough care to infants delivered alive during certain kinds of abortion procedures. In a statement on her website, Kelly, a Democrat, called the legislation “misleading and unnecessary.” The legislation could have subjected doctors to lawsuits and criminal charges in certain kinds of abortions and in circumstances when doctors induce labor to deliver a fetus that is expected to die outside the womb. Kelly vetoed a similar bill in 2019. “Federal law already protects newborns, and the procedure being described in this bill does not exist in Kansas in the era of modern medicine,” Kelly said Friday. “The intent of this bill is to interfere in medical decisions that should remain between doctors and their patients."
Kansas' Republican-controlled Legislature gave final passage to the bill earlier this month, and in both chambers, the bill passed with a veto-proof majority. Still, the bill's fate has been uncertain in a legal and political climate that's made Kansas an outlier on abortion policy among states with GOP-led legislatures. Even if abortion opponents succeed in overriding any veto, the measure could still be challenged in court and not enforced. Lawsuits have prevented Kansas from enforcing a 2015 ban on a second-trimester abortion procedure that critics call dismemberment abortion and a 2011 law imposing extra health and safety rules for abortion providers. Kansas abortion opponents haven’t pushed to ban abortion outright despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June 2022 that the U.S. Constitution allows such bans. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that access to abortion is a “fundamental” right under the state constitution, and in August 2022, voters rejected a proposed change to strip away protections for abortion rights.
This bill applies not only to “botched” or “unsuccessful” abortions but also when doctors induce labor to deliver a fetus that is expected to die within minutes outside the womb, which often occurs because of a severe medical issue. The Kansas measure is similar to laws in several other states requiring infants delivered alive during labor and delivery abortions to go to a hospital and imposing criminal penalties for doctors who don’t provide the same care “a reasonably diligent and conscientious” provider would with other live births. In Kansas, failing to provide reasonable care for such a newborn would be a felony, punishable by a year’s probation for a first-time offender. Also, the newborn’s parents and the parents or guardians of minors seeking abortions could sue providers. Critics of the bill have said the state would be intervening in difficult medical and ethical decisions between doctors and parents. They also said parents could be forced to accept futile and expensive care. Supporters have said the measure was necessary, and they considered it a humanitarian issue.
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Kansas Governor Vetoes Bill Requiring NRA Gun Safety Course in Schools
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) - Democratic Governor Laura Kelly has vetoed a bill requiring schools that teach gun safety courses to students to use lessons provided by the National Rifle Association. The bill does not require Kansas schools to offer gun safety training, but if they do, the bill dictated which programs they had to use. It requires the NRA’s Eddie Eagle program for younger students. But Kelly rejected the plan and called it government overreach. She says local school boards should decide which curriculum to use. Kelly’s action sets up another veto override attempt in the Legislature. But the House came up a handful of votes short of a veto-proof majority when it initially passed the bill.
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Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum Opens in Aviator's Hometown of Atchison
ATCHSION, Kan. (KCUR/KPR) - The new Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum has opened in the famous pilot's hometown of Atchison. Celebrations of Earhart began Friday and continued through weekend. Kansas Senator Roger Marshall and other dignitaries were on hand for the grand opening. Earhart was one of the nation's first female pilots and was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. The new museum celebrates the trailblazing aviator and features the last remaining Lockheed Electra 10-E aircraft. Earhart flew an identical plane on her doomed, final flight around the world in 1937. Her plane and the remains of Earhart and navigator, Fred Noonan, have never been found. (Read more.)
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This summary of area news is curated by KPR news staffers, including J. Schafer, Laura Lorson, Tom Parkinson and Kaye McIntyre. Our headlines are generally posted by 10 am weekdays and updated throughout the day. These ad-free headlines are made possible by KPR members. Become one today. And follow KPR News on Twitter.