Family starts fundraiser for KC teen shot while trying to pick up his younger brothers
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Ralph Yarl shooting
After a Kansas City teenager was shot and injured for going to the door of the wrong house, outrage followed in Kansas City and across the country.
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The family of a Kansas City teen who was shot when he arrived at the wrong address last week to pick up his siblings has started a fundraiser to help with his medical expenses.
Family members started a GoFundMe Sunday to help pay for hospital bills, therapy and future expenses like college after someone inside the home allegedly shot and injured the teen.
The boy, who family members have identified online as Ralph Yarl, was meant to pick up his brothers, who are twins, from a friend’s house on Northeast 115th Terrace. He ended up ringing the doorbell at a home on Northeast 115th Street, Faith Spoonmore, the teen’s aunt, wrote.
Spoonmore said a man opened the door, saw Ralph and shot him in the head. When Ralph fell to the ground, Spoonmore said the man shot him again.
Ralph got up and ran from the property, but he had to ask at three different homes before someone helped him.
Officers said they arrived in the area around 10 p.m. and found the boy injured. He was hospitalized, and police said initially that he was in stable condition with a life-threatening injury.
“Even though he is doing well physically, he has a long road ahead mentally and emotionally,” Spoonmore wrote. “The trauma that he has to endure and survive is unimaginable. He is our miracle. We have heard these types of stories many times, and unfortunately, most black boys are not alive to get another chance.”
The man who allegedly shot Ralph was brought to a police station to make a statement. Police have not released further details, nor have they identified the man or his race, but have announced a 3:30 p.m. Sunday press conference.
Spoonmore said Ralph’s friends and teacher describe him as a quiet and kind soul and a “musical genius.”
At school, he’s involved in jazz and competition band, the Technology Student Association and Science Olympiad. He is a section leader in the marching band and recently earned Missouri All-State Band recognition as a clarinet player. Ralph also plays multiple instruments in the Northland Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Last summer, he attended the Missouri Scholars Academy, a program for high-achieving high school sophomores. He hopes to study chemical engineering at Texas A&M University and travel to West Africa.
“Ralph deserves to have the future that he has dreams about,” Spoonmore said. “He deserves to be the light that shows the world that LOVE wins and that humanity is still Good.”
The incident has garnered national attention, with civil rights attorneys Lee Merritt and Ben Crump saying they have offered pro bono services to the family.
This story was originally published April 16, 2023 at 3:04 PM.
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