Ralph Yarl, 17, filed a civil suit in Clay County Court seeking monetary damages from Andrew “Dan” Lester, along with Lester’s homeowners’ association. The HOA failed to take precautions about a “potentially dangerous individual,” the lawsuit says.
The law being challenged for those interested (commonly known as "stand your ground" law)
21-5222. Same; defense of a person; no duty to retreat. (a) A person is justified in the use of force against another when and to the extent it appears to such person and such person reasonably believes that such use of force is necessary to defend such person or a third person against such other's imminent use of unlawful force.
(b) A person is justified in the use of deadly force under circumstances described in subsection (a) if such person reasonably believes that such use of deadly force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to such person or a third person.
(c) Nothing in this section shall require a person to retreat if such person is using force to protect such person or a third person.
I personally think it is pretty obvious that there was not "reasonable" cause to shoot someone simply since they rang your doorbell, but now it is up to a jury.
I also doubt this would be in the headlines if it was white man shooting white man or black man shooting black man. This really just seems like race baiting which isn't surprising in an election year I guess, moreso it's disappointing.
Lester, who later said he saw a large Black man at his door and was scared, shot through a glass storm door and then shot Yarl once again when he fell.
I don't think the media needlessly added race to it, the guys statement did.
"A 20-year-old woman with dreams of becoming a marine biologist was fatally shot by a homeowner Saturday when the car she was in turned into the wrong driveway in upstate New York.
Kaylin Gillis’ death, which occurred days after 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot and seriously injured after ringing the wrong doorbell in Kansas City, has sparked a national conversation around gun violence as well as “stand your ground” and "castle doctrine," both self-defense laws."
If he saw a white man, well, he probably wouldn't have shot, but he wouldn't have said a 'large white man' if he had to describe it.
He's explaining why he was scared, and felt "black" was an apt word to include in an explanation is telling.
Dude had a gut reaction to a strange person, in large part, by his own wording, because they were black. It's pertinent.
I get it, sometimes the media does inject race of victim selectively when it might not be relevant. There was a shooting death in my area recently, and the story was lamenting about black on black violence, when a story almost exactly like it played out between white people a little while back and race wasn't cited. But here, it's pretty core to the story.
The idea is that it wasn't for no reason, his comments make it pretty clear he's uncomfortable around black people. Doesn't necessarily make him a racist but certainly a bigot though perhaps of ignorance rather than actual malice.
Mm arguably, you could call it tribalist, bigoted, ignorant. We can define it how we please you just lose some support you might otherwise gain by calling a spade a spade rather than a gardening implement.
Describing someone using their race when it is a clear way to discern them from a crowd of people is not racist; but describing someone by their race when it's entirely irrelevant is likely driven by racism.
The kid being "black" in the statement adds nothing to the information. He could have easily said "I saw a large man at the door and I got scared" and it would not have been any different, since it isn't like he is trying discern the kid from a crowd. "Black" is being used to justify his fear of the person, and this is inherently racist.
Except we're not talking about someone who simply described someone's race. We're talking about someone who tried to murder a person because of their race.
I'm also relatively confident that it wouldn't have happened at all had it been a white man ringing the doorbell, or a black man on the inside of that house.
Wild how the poster above terms suing a man for shooting you in an act of blatant racism as "race baiting" by the victim.
It's like his brain is on backwards and he knows racism is involved, but he can't acknowledge what actually happened so he has to blame the victim for it.
If a man ~50 years younger than me that I don't recognize/know knocks on my door at night, regardless of his race, I would be concerned. Would I just shoot him? No. Would an 80 year old man just shoot him? apparently, I guess... But equating it to racism, without any evidence, is simple race baiting...
The old man is clearly in the wrong, that doesn't mean he is racist just because the kid was black
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he overlooked the "by the victim" and probably was talking about the media.
Your larger point still stands, that given the reported facts, it seems pretty apparent that the old man was scared by the person in large part because the person was black. I don't know why he wants to die on the hill that race didn't matter when the old man said seeing a large black man scared him enough to shoot.
"Large black man." Checking the photo in the article yeah that's a teen boy. Image search for "Ralph Yarl" kid looks even younger in more candid shots.
Fucking of course there was a racial element, you have to deliberately close your eyes to pretend otherwise.
If a man ~50 years younger than me that I don't recognize/know knocks on my door at night, regardless of his race, I would be concerned. Would I just shoot him? No. Would an 80 year old man just shoot him? apparently, I guess... But equating it to racism, without any evidence, is simple race baiting...
The old man is clearly in the wrong, that doesn't mean he is racist just because the kid was black