Kansas City police send Ralph Yarl shooting case file to Clay County prosecutors

The Kansas City Police Department has sent its investigative case file on the shooting of 16-year-old Ralph Yarl to prosecutors for a charging decision.

The case was submitted Monday to the Clay County Prosecutor’s Office, the police department said.

The teen was shot Thursday after knocking on the wrong door in a Northland neighborhood where he had been sent to pick up his younger twin brothers, his family has said. The shooting has provoked national outrage with Vice President Kamala Harris as well as several celebrities weighing in.

The junior at Staley High School was allegedly shot in the head by a homeowner, who shot him again after he had fallen to the ground. Yarl got up and sought help at three different homes before someone assisted him, family members said.

The shooter was taken into custody and released.

Police Chief Stacey Graves said Sunday that investigators needed a formal statement from the victim, forensic evidence and other information for the case file to be completed. She also said that authorities would consider whether the homeowner was protected by the state’s “Stand Your Ground” laws, which gives people the right to use deadly force to protect themselves. According to the law, the use of force must be proportionate to the level of threat.

Yarl’s shooting prompted a protest Sunday as well as national attention from celebrities including Jennifer Hudson, Halle Berry and Justin Timberlake. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said he hopes “the justice system does right by him.” Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver said, “I can think of no justification for shooting a child multiple times for ringing the wrong doorbell—and we as a society ought to think very carefully about whether or not that is the world we want to live in.”

Yarl was released from the hospital Sunday and was recovering at him, his father Paul Yarl said Monday morning.

The family will be represented by civil rights attorneys Lee Merritt and Ben Crump.

Katie Moore

The Kansas City Star

816-234-4312

Katie Moore was an enterprise and accountability reporter for The Star. She covered justice issues, including policing, prison conditions and the death penalty. She is a University of Kansas graduate and began her career as a reporter in 2015 in her hometown of Topeka, Kansas.