‘Thought he was dead’: Neighbor who helped Ralph Yarl says he found teen bloody and motionless
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI: A man who rushed to help Ralph Yarl, the 16-year-old shooting victim in Kansas City, revealed the heartbreaking condition the boy was in when he found him. Forty-two-year-old Jason Lynch said he was about to go to bed after a shower when he heard desperate screams from somebody saying, "Help, help, I've been shot!"
The Good Samaritan went over to his kitchen window and saw Yarl banging on the door of a nearby home before collapsing on the ground, bloody and motionless. Lynch, a father of three, immediately ran outside and raced across the street to help the teenager.
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'I thought he was dead'
Lynch recalled how Yarl was drenched in his own blood and he thought the boy had a hole in his head from the gunshot. "I thought he was dead," Lynch admitted to NBC News, adding, "He didn't deserve to get shot." Andrew Lester, 85, has been arrested and charged with first-degree assault over the attack. Lynch said he approached Yarl and told him, "I'm going to grab your hand really tight," using his training from when he was a Boy Scout. Yarl apparently struggled to tell him his name, age, and school as a fellow neighbor rushed to the scene with towels to try and get the bleeding under control. Emergency responders arrived shortly after.
Life is so very sacred. Few seem to recognize that these days, with many valuing only their own comfort and convenience—even above the life of another human being.
— Josh (@LDSPioneer) April 18, 2023
Grateful for men like Jason Lynch who recognized an emergency and jumped into action. Where one wicked man chose to… pic.twitter.com/CjDKo5OLH1
'That kid is tougher than I am'
Lynch said he didn't see himself as a hero and lauded Yarl for his bravery instead. "I didn't do anything but hold a kid's hand so he wouldn't feel alone. He had just gotten shot twice; he had a hole in the side of his head," he told NBC News. "That kid is tougher than I am. No one deserves to lay there like that. He hasn't even begun to live his life yet. He didn't deserve to get shot." According to Clay County prosecutor Zachary Thompson, there was a racial factor in the attack that saw the teenage music scholar shot twice -- in the head and arm -- after ringing the wrong doorbell while picking up his younger brothers. "I can tell you there was a racial component to the case," Thompson said. Meanwhile, Lester's bond has been set at $200,000 and he faces life in prison for the assault charge as well as 3 to 15 years for armed criminal action. The octogenarian allegedly shot the teenager twice through the glass at the front of the house, located just a block away from a property where Yarl's younger siblings were waiting to be picked up.
'Long road ahead'
Yarl is said to have pulled into the driveway of the wrong home around 10 pm on April 13. He rang the doorbell and was almost immediately shot in the head by the homeowner. The 16-year-old somehow managed to survive and was released from the hospital after only four days, which family attorney Ben Crump said was a miracle. "He continues to improve. He's responsive and he's making good progress," his father, Paul, added. In a GoFundMe campaign to cover medical and other expenses, Yarl's family said he is "doing well physically" but has a "long road ahead mentally and physically."
