January 9, 2024
Ralph Yarl Selected For Missouri All-State Band Honors
Ralph Yarl was named to Missouri’s 2024 All-State Band as the second chair for bass clarinet.
Ralph Yarl, the Kansas City teenager shot in April 2023 by Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old white man, after Yarl rang his doorbell after mistaking it for a house he had to pick up his siblings from has received All-State honors in band.
Fox 4 reports that Yarl was named to Missouri’s 2024 All-State Band as the second chair for bass clarinet, essentially marking Yarl as the state’s second-best bass clarinet player.
According to his family, Yarl, an honors student at Staley High School in Kansas City, was previously named to the All-State Band. Though Yarl was shot twice by Lester, once in the head and also in the arm, he was released from the hospital a few days after his injuries were treated. That summer, Yarl completed an engineering internship and resumed his studies at Staley High in August.
Now a senior, Yarl will likely testify again in the trial of Lester, which has been set for October 2024. In preliminary hearings, Yarl took the witness stand in August 2023 as one of 12 witnesses called to testify by the prosecution.
KSHB reported that during Yarl’s testimony, he told the court that after Lester told him “Don’t ever come here again,” Yarl began to back away, at which point Lester shot him in the head and again in his arm while he lay on the ground.
Lester faces one count of first-degree felony assault and one count of armed criminal action, which is also a felony, due to his alleged actions toward Yarl. Lester’s grandson, Klint Ludwig, said he believes his grandfather’s embrace of conspiracy theories may have played a role in the shooting of Yarl. “His actions are his responsibility, and falling into the fear and paranoia stoked by the 24-hour news cycle and wild conspiracies did not help his mental state.” Ludwig said.
“Ralph deserves justice, regardless of my relationship with the shooter,” Ludwig added. “Black Lives Matter always.”
In a June 2023 interview with Good Morning America, Yarl described the event from his point of view. “He points [the gun] at me … so I kinda, like, brace and I turn my head,” Yarl said. “Then it happened. And then I’m on the ground … and then I fall on the glass. The shattered glass. And then before I know it I’m running away shouting, ‘Help me, help me.’”
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