Ralph Yarl was shot twice after he rang the wrong doorbell and was calling for help while lying motionless in a pool of blood, according to a good samaritan who came to the boy’s aid.
James Lynch, 42, who lives on Northeast 115 Street in Clay County, Kansas City, told NBC News that he was alerted by loud screams at around 10pm last Thursday night – something unusual for the quiet suburban neighbourhood.
“I thought he was dead,” Mr Lynch said about the moment when he first saw Ralph, a Black 16-year-old boy.
“No one deserves to lay there like that,” Mr Lynch said. “He hasn’t even begun to live his life yet. He didn’t deserve to get shot.”
Mr Lynch had just gotten out of the shower when he heard somebody screaming “Help, help, I’ve been shot!” and first saw him banging the door of a nearby home.
He said he ran outside immediately and reached across the street to another neighbour’s driveway.
The teenager was covered in blood and at first, it looked like he had been shot in his head near an eye socket, he said.
“I’m going to grab your hand really tight,” Mr Lynch told the teenager.
He said he remembered his Eagle Scout training and checked his wrist for a pulse as he tried to keep a conversation going with Ralph by asking his name and where he studied.
Unable to pronounce his name, Ralph spelled it out as another neighbour came with towels to stem the bleeding.
Mr Lynch and another neighbour waited with Ralph till the paramedics arrived.
“I didn’t do anything but hold a kid’s hand so he wouldn’t feel alone,” Mr Lynch said.
“He had just gotten shot twice; he had a hole in the side of his head.”
“That kid is tougher than I am,” he quipped and said he did not consider himself to be a hero.
Ralph, an honour student and all-state band member, was shot in the head and the arm allegedly by an 85-year-old white man named Andrew D Lester after he rang the wrong door while looking for his two younger brothers.
The teenager is recovering at home after he was discharged from the hospital.
Ralph had run to “multiple” homes asking for help before finding someone who would call the police, the probable cause statement said.
Kansas City police chief Stacey Graves said she “do[es] recognise the racial components of this case” and prosecuting attorney Zachary Thompson also told a news conference that there was a “racial component” to the shooting.
