Stephen King is always stealing my ideas. I think I’m going to contact a lawyer, maybe Jackie Chiles from ‘Seinfeld’.
Posted on 04/18/2023 5:49:45 AM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
A White man in Kansas City is accused of shooting a Black teenager who rang his doorbell by mistake, renewing attention on Missouri’s self-defense laws after the man, Andrew Lester, 84, said he shot Ralph Yarl, 16, because he feared for his safety.
Lester has since been charged with two felonies and said he was “scared to death” when the teen showed up at his front door. Yarl, who has been described by a family friend as quiet and respectful, was trying to pick up his siblings from a friend’s house and went to the wrong address. The shooting, which the prosecutor acknowledged had a racial component, has sparked protests calling for strong action against Lester.
Self-defense laws known as “stand your ground” statutes and “castle doctrine” — are part of many of states’ legal frameworks and have increasingly been part of the debate over gun violence. Here’s what you need to know......
Lester, the homeowner, said that he shot Yarl because he believed he “was protecting himself from a physical confrontation” and that he heard Yarl pulling on the storm door, the criminal complaint says, setting up a potential defense that relies on Missouri’s self-defense laws. According to Yarl’s statement, he rang the doorbell and waited quietly for a few minutes before Lester opened the door and fired on him.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Stephen King is always stealing my ideas. I think I’m going to contact a lawyer, maybe Jackie Chiles from ‘Seinfeld’.
ever open a storm door to knock on the main door?
Yeah, standing a few feet away is necessary just do the door peephole can work. Entering a house without giving the occupant an opportunity to vet you is just stupid.
As to opening a screen door, that is common in many areas. Knocking on a closed screen door sounds horrid, threatening. Opening it and knocking on the wooden door frame is a lot less threatening. Just standing there with the screen door in your hands is back to being threatening.
If the kid got aggressive and was trying to open the door (fingerprints) late in the evening then that changes a lot.
Most 84-year-old men don’t have much fight left in them physically, their bodies are mostly hollow and frail which means they can stand, and they can walk, but they can’t meet a teen’s charge and use their bodies in a fighting situation, the bones and muscles have been replaced with arthritis and brittle bones and joints that don’t work.
We’ll have to see how the evidence goes.
It would appear that these "youths" really admire the cops, and want to be just like them.
Another report says the kid was rattling the door latch to the Glass storm door.
THE LIGHTS WERE OFF-—
Old man was in bed.
THESE facts didn’t register on the kid???? The “INTELLECTUALLY SUPERIOR kid???
IF his brothers were there-—why would house be DARK???
LIGHTS are off.
10 PM.
You are 85 y/o
You live alone
You are in bed.
Black kid rings bell.
You have NO IDEA WHY at 10 PM
Black kid is rattling door latch on outer glass storm door.
You think it is attempted break in....
What would ANY NORMAL PERSON’S REACTION BE???
IF IT had been broad daylight & high noon—perhaps a different story-—BUT it wasn’t those conditions.
Too much criminal behavior in the dark community to be taking ANY chances—
This is the LEGACY from Geo Floyd riots, etc.
One report says hen didn’t have his phone with him.....
NOT buying THAT.
Most kids have a phone IMPLANT
Isn’t the storm door just the screen door, so its not even the main door, and I can understand someone pulling it open to be able to knock properly on the actual door.
He did not try to open the door! In fact the idiot guy shot him through the screen door. Fear of blacks won’t cut it with the jury.
“As a rule, knock on the door, or use the doorbell / door-knocker . . . and then get off the front porch and stand back on the sidewalk at least 10 ft away.”
That’s what the police in Farmington, NM did just before the homeowner opened the door with a gun in hand and then aimed the gun at one of the officers. The police promptly shot him dead
Hard to claim one is in fear for their life if they walk up to the door and open it.
“Sounds to me this has NOTHING TO DO with Stand Your Ground.”
I agree with you.
I fear he is guilty of manslaughter.
ATTEMPTED maybe, since the kid is still alive, and at home.
This happened to me last month on a drive to TN from KS. I ended up in backwater KY, on a two-lane road. Yes, I heard banjos.
“Terrified”? Your scenario isn’t particularly terrifying to me, but even so it wouldn’t mean you’re entitled to use deadly force.
I read, yesterday that Yarl said that it took the man an unusually long time to respond. It didn’t say if he was knocking or ringing the doorbell. It certainly didn’t mention opening the storm door. I also read that the Michael Brown lawyer was speaking for the family.
If I go to the door in the middle of the night and someone is trying to ENTER my house, or I THINK they are trying to enter (opening or turning the handle).
I am going to be scared to death.
Would I shoot them? no, because I wouldn’t be answering the door with a gun, but that’s me. But I can understand someone else even more scared doing differently.
Here is the deal.
Lets just assume the exact same situation happened... BUT it was a home invader who intended to force their way into the home and kill the old man. The old guy goes to the door... opens the inner door so see the home invader opening the outer porch door. IF it WAS a home invader the old man would of only had a FRACTION of a second (since he opened the inner door already) before the home invader would of attacked him.
I know.. this kid was just confused and innocent, and simply at the wrong house. BUT the old man had to make a 1/100th of a second decision that his LIFE depended on.
I am just thankful the poor kid didn’t die, and hope he has a full recovery. But I feel sorry for the old man.
I personally think the old man agreeing to pay for the kids hospital bills would have been more appropriate than criminal charges.
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