The young Black teenager who was shot after he rang the wrong doorbell by accident received a personal invite from Alicia keys to attend her concert.
According to TMZ, the 16-year-old teenager won’t just be going to see Keys’ July show, but he’ll also have the opportunity to meet the singer personally. Furthermore, Lee Merrit, the lawyer for the Yarl family, also shared with TMZ that Jay-Z’s Roc Nation has also reached out to Ralph with the hopes of assisting in any way possible.
RELATED:WATCH: Grandson of Man Who Shot Black Teen Ralph Yarl Says His Grandpa Is A “Racist”
As we previously reported, the shooting of 16-year-old Ralph Yarl made national headlines after the teen was shot and wounded on April 13 when he rang the doorbell of the wrong house in Kansas City, Missouri. His family revealed he was trying to pick up his younger siblings from a house nearby when he was shot twice, once in the head and once in the arm. Police have said Yarl, who is Black, was shot by a White homeowner known as Andrew Lester.
In more recent news, Lester, the 84-year-old suspect in the shooting of Ralph Yarl, entered a plea of ‘not guilty’ in court a few weeks ago.
Lester appeared in front of a Clay County judge after reportedly coming into the courthouse through a back door. Yarl’s family attorney Lee Merritt was at the courthouse. Merritt said Yarl’s family chose not to come after getting slammed with media interviews on Tuesday. Merritt said Yarl is making a strong recovery. He also talked about Lester and the case moving forward, saying he is calling for an investigation into a federal hate crime charges.
“He’s going to spend the rest of his life in prison,” Merritt said. “That’s the outcome that we’re hoping for, all of his assets are going to be come Ralph’s assets, and he’s going to have to deal with that.”
Lester reportedly told police that he was shooting in self-defense, because he believed Yarl was there to break into his home. He said firing his gun was “the last thing he wanted to do,” but was “scared to death” because of Yarl’s size and his age.
When police searched Lester’s home, they found a loaded Smith and Wesson .32 caliber revolver, with two spent shell casings still inside of the cylinder, plus live rounds in the chamber.
The officers revealed that they received a 911 phone call from a neighbor who believed the suspect who shot Yarl was a nearby homeowner — to which officers confirmed when they approached Lester’s home and saw the front storm door glass shattered on the floor, along with blood on the front porch and driveway.