01of 09Ralph YarlRalph Yarl.Go Fund MeRalph Yarl, 16, was picking up his siblings from a home in Kansas City, Mo., on April 13when he accidentally went to the wrong house.HomeownerAndrew Lester, 84,shot him through his storm door, then shot him again as he lay on the ground in a pool of blood and smashed glass, authorities said. Yarl suffered injuries to his forehead and his arm.“I can tell you there was a racial component to this case,” Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson said at a news conference days later.Lester, who is White, told police he shot Ralph, who is Black, because he was “scared to death,” according to the probable cause statement.Lester was chargedwith both assault in the first degree and armed criminal action as Yarl recovered in the hospital. He was released days later and is expected to make a rull recovery, saidfamily lawyer Lee Merritt. “Ralph is a WALKING MIRACLE with a head of steel,” Merritt said.As of April 20, a GoFundMe for the high schooler had reached $3.3 million.
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Ralph Yarl
Ralph Yarl.Go Fund Me
Ralph Yarl, 16, was picking up his siblings from a home in Kansas City, Mo., on April 13when he accidentally went to the wrong house.HomeownerAndrew Lester, 84,shot him through his storm door, then shot him again as he lay on the ground in a pool of blood and smashed glass, authorities said. Yarl suffered injuries to his forehead and his arm.
“I can tell you there was a racial component to this case,” Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson said at a news conference days later.
Lester, who is White, told police he shot Ralph, who is Black, because he was “scared to death,” according to the probable cause statement.
Lester was chargedwith both assault in the first degree and armed criminal action as Yarl recovered in the hospital. He was released days later and is expected to make a rull recovery, saidfamily lawyer Lee Merritt. “Ralph is a WALKING MIRACLE with a head of steel,” Merritt said.As of April 20, a GoFundMe for the high schooler had reached $3.3 million.
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Kaylin Gillis
Kaylin Gillis.gofundme
Just days after Yarl’s shooting,20-year-old Kaylin Gillis was shot and killedon April 15 when the vehicle she was riding in mistakenly pulled into the wrong driveway.
Her boyfriend Blake Walsh told NBC, “We thought we were at the right address. We didn’t have any cell service to figure it out. As soon as we figured it out that we were at the wrong location, we started to leave, and that’s when everything happened.”
“My friend said, ‘They’re shooting — go!’ " Walsh continued. “I tried to step on the gas as fast as I could, and that’s when the fatal shot came through.”
Monahan was charged with second-degree murderand may face more charges, according to District Attorney Tony Jordan.
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Payton Washington and Heather Roth
Payton Washington.GoFundMe
A third incident, this one in outside of Austin, Texas,occured on April 17after cheerleaders Heather Roth and Payton Washington (pictured) and two teammates were returning home from cheer practice and Roth accidentally attempted to enter an occupied car that looked like her vehicle.
After Roth returned to a friend’s car upon realizing the mistake, the driver of the other vehicle, 25-year-old Pedro Tello Rodriguez, approached the group with a gun and began shooting.
“It was a harrowing night for all four of those girls,” Woodlands Elite Cheer Owner Lynne Shearer toldFox 7 Austin.
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Kerisha Johnson
Kerisha Johnson.Facebook
Kerisha Johnson, 36, was due to give birth any day when shewas shot and killed in Baton Rouge, La.,on April 16, in what was seemingly a case of mistaken identity.
Johnson was reportedly picking people up from the party when she was shot, according to reports. She attempted to flee the scene, but was struck and killed, according to ABC.
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Kinsley White
Queen City News/Youtube
Witnesses at the scene said Singletary, 24, became angry when the ball went into his yard.
“He looked at my husband and my daughter and told them, ‘I’m going to kill you,’ " Ashley Hilderbrand, Kinsley’s mother, toldABC News.
Singletary was arrested in Floridaon April 20; while Hilderbrand and Kinsley are recovering from their injuries, Hilderbrand’s husband William White remains in the hospital.
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Ahmaud Arbery
Ahmaud Arbery.Facebook
Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was killed on Feb. 23, 2020, after beingchased while joggingon a public street in Brunswick, Georgia. The three White men — Gregory McMichael, 67, his son Travis McMichael, 37, and their neighbor William Bryan, 53 — believed he matched the description of a possible burglar, according to their defense, and pursued and confronted Arbery, with Travis fatally shooting Arbery during an ensuing struggle over Travis' shotgun.
All three men are serving sentences of life in prison following their conviction in 2021 on state charges of murder in the case.In 2022, they were charged with interference of rights, a federal hate crime, and attempted kidnapping, which carried separate sentences.Arbery’s mother Wanda Cooper-Jones spoke to local media at a run in her son’s memory in February 2023, saying, “Ahmaud was out on a run, he got up that Sunday morning and he started to do laundry, he got up and ran thinking he would return, he never returned. And each time I think about that, it breaks my heart.“Three years after his death, “I have to say that it’s been a really really hard long draining,” she added. “It’s been hard.”
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Trayvon Martin
Trayvon Martin Martin Family/AP.Trayvon Martin Martin Family/AP
As he walked back to his family townhouse, another resident, George Zimmerman, saw him and called 911. Although he was told not to follow the boy, Zimmerman confronted him. During the altercation, Zimmerman fatally shot Martin in the chest.
The shooting led to protests around the country that continued for months. Zimmerman, then 28, said that he was defending himself underFlorida’s “Stand Your Ground” laws.He was acquitted of murder charges in July 2013.
“It’s gratifying that Trayvon is remembered and is part of making a change, but I would give it all up to have him back,“Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton told PEOPLE in 2022. “Nothing good that has happened can make up for the fact that I lost my son. I have days that are easier and days that are harder. I miss Trayvon, and I’ll miss him every day of my life.”
08of 09Yoshihiro HattorAP Photo/The Advocate, Bill FeigYears before any of these shootings, Yoshihiro Hattori, a 16-year-old Japanese exchange student living in Baton Rouge, La., knocked on the wrong door when headed to a party on Oct. 17, 1992.The homeowner, 30-year-old Rodney Peairs, shot at Hattori and his friend, hitting Hattori in the chest and ultimately killing him.Though Peairs initially wasn’t arrested and later acquitted of manslaughter, Hattori’s family later won a civil suit against him, taking the $100,000 settlement and putting it toward their advocacy work to end gun violence.According to the BBC, Masa and Mieko Hattori were moved to activism after their son’s killing, meeting with President Bill Clinton, who signed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and saw Congress pass the federal Assault Weapons Ban.
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Yoshihiro Hattor
AP Photo/The Advocate, Bill Feig
Years before any of these shootings, Yoshihiro Hattori, a 16-year-old Japanese exchange student living in Baton Rouge, La., knocked on the wrong door when headed to a party on Oct. 17, 1992.
The homeowner, 30-year-old Rodney Peairs, shot at Hattori and his friend, hitting Hattori in the chest and ultimately killing him.
Though Peairs initially wasn’t arrested and later acquitted of manslaughter, Hattori’s family later won a civil suit against him, taking the $100,000 settlement and putting it toward their advocacy work to end gun violence.
According to the BBC, Masa and Mieko Hattori were moved to activism after their son’s killing, meeting with President Bill Clinton, who signed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and saw Congress pass the federal Assault Weapons Ban.
09of 09GettyA14-year-old was shot in the back of her headafter authorities say a homeowner allegedly opened fire after she was spotted playing hide-and-seek in his backyard.Louisiana homeowner David V. Doyle, 58, told authorities that he unknowingly hit the unidentified teenager after he began shooting at individuals when they were running away from his property, according to apress release.An initial investigation into the incident showed that multiple individuals were playing on Doyle’s property when the incident took place, the press release states.The girl, who has not been publicly identified, sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
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Getty
A14-year-old was shot in the back of her headafter authorities say a homeowner allegedly opened fire after she was spotted playing hide-and-seek in his backyard.
Louisiana homeowner David V. Doyle, 58, told authorities that he unknowingly hit the unidentified teenager after he began shooting at individuals when they were running away from his property, according to apress release.
An initial investigation into the incident showed that multiple individuals were playing on Doyle’s property when the incident took place, the press release states.
The girl, who has not been publicly identified, sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
source: people.com
