White Missouri man, 85, hobbles into court with cane to face charges of shooting black boy Ralph Yarl, 16, who rang his doorbell by accident

The white Missouri man who shot a 16 year-old black boy after he accidentally rang the wrong doorbell has hobbled in to court to face assault charges. 

Andrew Lester, 85, was seen at the Clay County courthouse on Tuesday. Cameras weren't allowed inside, but he was seen hobbling into a courtroom on a cane last year, KSN reported. 

Footage captured last year showed him using the walking aid for an earlier hearing. 

Ralph Yarl, now 17, was shot by Lester on April 13, 2023 after he went to the wrong address while going to pick up his twin younger brothers from their friend's house in Kansas City, Missouri.

Yarl was blasted with a bullet on ringing Lester's doorbell, with the teenager's shooting sparking nationwide outrage.   

Lester was released on $200,000 bail after being charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. 

The elderly man has pleaded guilty to the charges as his attorney has argued that Lester acted in self-defense. 

Yarl miraculously made a full recovery 10 weeks after the near-fatal incident- but he said mentally there is still a strain following the ordeal. 

In June, the teen spoke for the first time following the shooting and revealed the five sinister words that the gunman said to him before shooting in his head and arm on his porch.

Recalling the moments before he was shot by the homeowner, Yarl told Good Morning America: 'I go into the driveway, I walk up the steps, I rang the doorbell.'

'I didn't even know their family at all...so I think this is their house.'

'I actually waited a long time. I hear the door open. I see this old man, and I'm assuming his must be their grandpa, and then he pulls out his gun.'

'I'm like woah, so I back up. He points it at me so I brace and I turn my head.'

'Before that I'm thinking, there's no way he's actually going to shoot, the doors even open, he's going to shoot through his door and glass is going to get everywhere.'

'And it happened. I'm on the ground, I fall on the glass, the shattered glass. Before I know it I'm running way shouting help me help me.'

'I was bleeding from my head. I was thinking, how is this possible.'

'He only said five words: "Don't come here ever again",' Yarl recalled. 

His mother Cleo Nagbe said 'it was traumatizing' when she first saw her son in the hospital bed after being shot twice. 

Since the frightening encounter, Yarl said that even though he has recovered physically, mentally, his mind 'is just foggy' and it is hard for him to concentrate. 

The teen, who took his SATs when he was just in the eighth grade, now struggles with daily tasks which would normally be easy to him. 

'I'm just a kid. I going to keep doing all the stuff that makes me happy and just living my life the best I can and not let this bother me,' Yarl added. 

'Justice is the rule, the law, regardless of race, ethnicity and age. He should be convicted for the crimes he made. I'm past having any personal hatred for him.' 

'He should suffer repercussions because that's what our society is made of, trust in each other and reassurance that we can coexist together in harmony.' 

On the day of the shooting, the teen approached the door but did not 'cross the threshold' into the house, prosecutors said.

Lester was said to have opened the door and fired two .32-caliber rounds from a revolver that struck Yarl on the forehead and the arm. Prosecutors previously said there was no indication any words were exchanged. 

After shooting Yarl, Lester told police that when he saw a black man 'pulling on the exterior storm door handle,' he believed the person was attempting to break in.

During an interview with a detective Yarl said that he only rang the doorbell and did not pull on the door. 

Clay County prosecutor Zachary Thompson confirmed there was a racial factor in the attack. 

'I can tell you there was a racial component to the case,' Thompson said. 

Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves also acknowledged the 'racial components' at play in the case.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said that Ralph was 'shot because he was existing while black'. 

After Yarl, then 16, was shot, a Good Samaritan rushed over to help him after he heard gun fire outside his home. 

Jason Lynch, 42, said he was ready to go to bed after a shower when he heard the shots and somebody screaming: 'Help, help, I've been shot!'

He went over to his kitchen window and saw Yarl banging on the door of a nearby home, before lying down on the ground, bloody and motionless. 

I thought he was dead,' Lynch admitted. 'He didn't deserve to get shot.'

The father of three sprung into action, ran outside and hopped a fence before racing across the street to meet Yarl.

Lynch told NBC News that Yarl's face and arms were covered in blood and he thought the boy had a hole in his head from being shot.

He approached Yarl and told him: 'I'm going to grab your hand really tight,' citing training from when he was a Boy Scout.

Yarl struggled as Lynch asked him to repeat his name, age and school as a fellow neighbor raced out with towels to try and get the blood flow under control. Paramedics eventually arrived.

Yarl is known among his peers for his intellect and for being a 'musical genius.'

The teen had received a letter from Yale Undergraduate Admissions Board identifying him as a 'good candidate' for the prestigious university.

Yale is part of his high school's Technology Student Association and Science Olympiad Team, plays in the marching, jazz, and competition band, and is one of the top bass clarinet players in Missouri.

He had big dreams of attending college after being recognized as a Missouri scholar academy alumni in 2022.

Yale's attorneys specialize in civil rights and previously represented the families of Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Cameron Lamb.

Lester's pre-trial will be held on September 6 and the jury trial is set for October 7. 

Missouri is one of twenty US states which has stand-your-ground laws, which removes the duty to retreat before using deadly force in self-defense.

The law permits homeowners to protect themselves, or a third party with deadly force should a person feel it is necessary.