Missouri teenager Ralph Yarl has been released from hospital just days after he was critically injured when he was shot by a Kansas City homeowner.
Ralph, 16, was released on Sunday and is recovering at home after being shot twice in the head and chest when he accidentally went to the wrong house to try to pick up his brothers on Thursday, his father Paul Yarl told The Kansas City Star.
The high school junior was responsive and “making good progress”, Mr Yarl added.
Ralph’s mother, a nurse, has taken time off work to care for him at the family’s home, Mr Yarl told the news site.
Ralph, a 16-year-old high school junior, was shot twice last Thursday when he accidentally went to the wrong house to pick up his younger twin brothers.
The teenager spent four days in hospital while the white homeowner – 84-year-old Andrew Lester – is still walking free.
Mr Lester was finally charged on Monday afternoon with assault in the first degree, which carries a punishment of 10 to 30 years or life imprisonment, and armed criminal action, which carries a punishment of 3 to 15 years, but has not been taken into custody.
Ralph’s aunt Faith Spoonmore organised a GoFundme page to help with his recovery that has received more than $2.6m in just over 24 hours since it was set up.
She said that her nephew was a highly talented bass clarinet musician and marching band leader whose life had been forever changed by the shooting.
“Even though he is doing well physically, he has a long road ahead mentally and emotionally. The trauma that he has to endure and survive is unimaginable. He is our miracle,” Ms Spoonmore wrote.
Kansas City Police said that Ralph had gone to collect his siblings from a friend’s house on 115th Terrace in Kansas City, Missouri, on the evening of 13 April.
Police said that the teenager got muddled up with the address and accidentally went to a home on 115th Street by mistake.
There, Ralph allegedly rang the doorbell and the homeowner opened fire on him through a glass screen door using a .32 caliber revolver.
Prosecutors said that there is no indication Ralph and the homeowner exchanged any words with each other before the shooting unfolded and there is no footage of the encounter.
According to a probable cause statement, Mr Lester told police he was in bed when he heard the doorbell ring and so he grabbed a handgun.
When he saw Ralph, he claimed he was “scared to death” at the boy’s size and feared he was unable to defend himself given his elderly age.
He claimed he thought the boy was trying to break in and so shot twice through his exterior glass door, the documents state.
However, Ralph told police from his bed at Children’s Mercy Hospital that he did not pull the door – but only pressed the doorbell.
He said he was waiting at the door when the man opened it and immediately shot him.
He fell to the ground and was shot a second time, he said.
After being shot, he said he heard the shooter warn him: “Don’t come around here.”
Mr Lester was initially arrested on the scene but was released just two hours later at around 1.24am the next morning, police said.
Ralph meanwhile was rushed to hospital where he spent four days.
On Monday (17 April), Ralph was released from hospital and had returned home to recover there.
While the police chief initially said that there was no evidence to date to indicate that the shooting was racially motivated, Mr Thompson said while announcing the charges that prosecutors did believe there was a racial element.
