'Nobody should go through this': Woman recounts helping Ralph Yarl despite 911 dispatcher's active shooter warning
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI: A woman from Kansas City recounted the frightening events that happened just after Ralph Yarl, 16, was shot twice by Andrew Lester, 84, on April 13. Despite 911 callers' advice of an active shooter and not to open her door, she rushed out to help injured Ralph who was banging on her front door like "crazy" and asking for help.
When Ralph Yarl went to pick up his twin younger brothers from their friend's house, he mistakenly knocked on the wrong door and was shot. "The man in the home opened the door, looked my nephew in the eye, and shot him in the head," Faith Spoonmore, Ralphs's aunt wrote on GoFundMe. "My nephew fell to the ground, and the man shot him again. Ralph was then able to get up and run to the neighbor's house, looking for help," she added.
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'Someone started banging, crazy banging on my front door'
On Thursday night, Jodi was home with her son when she heard someone at her door. "All of a sudden someone started banging, crazy banging on my front door, shaking the handle saying I need help, I need help,” a woman who identified herself as Jodi told KCTV. She immediately called 911 and the dispatcher repeatedly advised her not to open the door for reports of an "active shooter in the area."
“I go ‘I think he’s hurt. He needs help. I want to go out there,’ and she’s like ‘You don’t know where the shooter is,’” Jodi recalled. “And I said ‘he (Yarl) just went down.’”
'I told my son and said he’s been shot and I ran out'
As Jodi saw other neighbors with flashlights running to help Yarl, she joined in, "I told my son and said ‘he’s been shot,’ and I ran out,” she told the outlet. Kneeling beside Yarl, Jodi asked him questions about what had happened to keep him alert while they waited for emergency services to arrive. Yarl told Jodi that he had been shot by Lester after knocking on his door to pick up his little brothers. He wanted to start crying. He said ‘It hurts,’ and I told him, ‘I’m sure it does, but I want you to look at me, look at me, help is on the way,’” Jodi said. Jodi stayed with Yarl until help arrived.
'Nobody should go through this'
Jodi revealed how she later cleaned up the blood from her front door stating that it could have been anyone and even his child. “Nobody should go through this, that was somebody’s child’s blood I cleaned off the front door and railing. It could have been mine; it could have been anyone’s."
Ralph's GoFundeMe fundraiser has touched $3,374,400, Spoonmore wrote in an update, "Ralph is currently at home with the family. He can ambulate and communicate. A true miracle considering what he survived."
