As previously reported by REVOLT, late last week, Ralph Yarl, 16, was shot in the head by an 84-year-old white man while simply trying to pick his younger brothers up from a sleepover at a nearby home. Many are trying to come to terms with the fact that yet another unarmed Black boy was almost killed in a case involving a racial component, including a member of the gunman’s family, who said it “never should have happened.”

Andrew Lester is the Kansas City, Missouri homeowner charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action after shooting Yarl once in his head and once in his arm. Yesterday (April 18), Lester’s grandson, Daniel Ludwig, told The Daily Beast he’s having difficulty making sense of why the tragedy occurred. Yarl was severely wounded after ringing Lester’s doorbell in the 1100 block of Northeast 115th Street. The teen was instead supposed to be in the 1100 block of Northeast 115th Terrace.

“I’d go to visit my grandpa, and I would get lost on those streets. It’s easy to do. They all look the same and everything,” Ludwig told the publication. He added, “It’s just crazy. I wish it didn’t happen.” Lester was interviewed by police after the incident, and told investigators he “believed someone was attempting to break into the house, and shot twice within a few seconds of opening the door.” The 84-year-old described Yarl as a “Black male approximately 6 feet tall” and said he was “scared to death.”

Yarl was able to pull himself up and seek help. Unfortunately, the wounded teen was turned down by at least two of Lester’s neighbors before one finally helped. A woman, who asked not to be identified, told CNN the 911 dispatcher instructed her to stay inside her home since they did not know where the shooter was, but she eventually went outside anyway with towels to try and stop his bleeding. “We figured out then he went to the wrong street, which is no excuse for what happened. This is somebody’s child. I had to clean blood off of my door, off of my railing. That was someone’s child’s blood. I’m a mom… this is not OK,” she said. The woman added that as they waited for an ambulance to arrive, Yarl told her he ran track at his high school and plays the bass clarinet. “He was very alert. He is a very strong man. Very brave,” she added.