Ralph Yarl, the Missouri Black teen shot in the head after accidentally going to the wrong home to pick up his siblings, recently broke his silence.
During an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America, the teen said, “I’m just a kid and not larger than life because this happened to me.”
“I’m just gonna keep doing all the stuff that makes me happy. And just living my life the best I can, and not let this bother me,” he told Robin Roberts in Tuesday’s interview.
Ralph, who was 16 then, was shot in the head and arm after he rang the doorbell at the wrong house in his Kansas City neighborhood on April 13.
“Don’t come here ever again,” were the only words Andrew Lester, the 84-year-old White man accused of shooting Ralph, said to him before he fired his gun. He now faces two felony charges, CNN reported.
Lester said he thought Ralph was trying to break into the home and was “scared to death” due to the boy’s size, according to the probable cause document obtained by CNN.
However, his aunt told CNN that Ralph is shorter than 6 feet and probably under 170 pounds.
“I’m thinking there’s no way he’s actually going to shoot,” Ralph told Good Morning America. “Then, it happened.”
Ralph described running away from the house while bleeding from his head and yelling for help.
He said that since the shooting, he has experienced headaches, trouble sleeping, and difficulty concentrating.
“You’re looking at a kid who took the SAT when he was in the eighth grade, and now his brain has slowed,” Ralph’s mother, Cleo Nagbe, told Roberts. “Physically, he looks fine, but there is a lot that has been taken from him.”
Yet, Ralph said he is past any feelings of hatred for Lester but believes Lester should be convicted for the alleged crimes.
“Justice is just the rule of the law, regardless of race, ethnicity, and age,” Ralph said.
Lester was detained for less than two hours on the night of the shooting, according to the Kansas City Police Department detention unit, which sparked outrage in the community and calls for charges against him. Lester turned himself in almost a week later and was released on bail.
