拉尔夫·亚尔的家庭，一个黑人少年中弹受伤去年他敲错了门，周一在密苏里州对被指控的枪手安德鲁·莱斯特提起民事诉讼。
这份代表亚尔母亲克莱奥·纳格贝(Cleo Nagbe)提交的诉状称，莱斯特和枪击发生地堪萨斯城附近的海兰阿克里湖滨高地房主协会(Highland Acres Lakeside Heights owners Association)认为，他们的“粗心”和“疏忽”导致亚尔“遭受并承受了永久性伤害”。
“(拉尔夫)老实说对我来说是个异类，因为他心中没有仇恨。没有愤怒或痛苦，”亚尔的家庭律师李·梅里特在周一播出的采访中告诉ABC新闻。“他有强烈的正义感，他希望我们继续为他追求正义。”
当被问及这起诉讼时，莱斯特的律师史蒂文·萨蒙告诉ABC新闻，他无法置评，因为他不知道这起诉讼，也没有看到诉状的副本。这起民事诉讼发生在莱斯特的刑事审判之前，刑事审判定于10月7日开始。
ABC新闻联系了房主协会，但没有立即回复置评请求。
85岁的老人被控一项一级重罪袭击与2023年4月13日的枪击案和一项武装犯罪行动有关，也是一项重罪。莱斯特拒不认罪，交了20万美元的保释金后获释。
据警方称，亚尔被莱斯特击中头部和右臂，此前这名少年错误地到达错误的地址，从朋友家接他的双胞胎兄弟。莱斯特坚持认为有人试图闯入他的房子。
“拉尔夫正在慢慢接受所发生的事情，”亚尔的母亲克里奥·纳格贝在周一播出的独家采访中告诉ABC新闻。“一开始，他的处理方式是最小化……但创伤会影响你。所以他的创伤已经减轻了。”
梅里特说，虽然民事诉讼“没有指控莱斯特涉嫌枪杀亚尔是因为种族仇恨”，但“生活在密苏里州堪萨斯城的年轻黑人男孩应该能够敲错门，应该能够在自己的社区自由行动，而不必担心自己会被定罪和受到暴力袭击。”
该诉讼指控莱斯特在枪击发生前“不小心和疏忽”未能与亚尔沟通或“发出声音警告”，未能询问亚尔在那里的原因，也未能向这名青少年提供帮助。
亚尔下个月即将年满18岁，在枪击后遭受了创伤性脑损伤(TBI)纳格贝说，他的“康复期真的很长”，而且“仍在进行中”。
她补充说，自从他受伤以来，她的儿子一直在以一种他以前没有过的方式努力完成学业。
“这就是为什么我为他感到难过，”她说。“但他没有意识到自己的心智能力发生了变化。这并不是说他不太聪明，只是当大脑想愈合时，大脑想愈合。它把一切都集中在治愈上。”
根据诉状，Yarl“遭受并遭受了永久性伤害，忍受了暂时性和永久性的疼痛和痛苦，经历了残疾和正常生活活动的丧失，不得不花费大量金钱进行医疗护理和治疗，并遭受了其他损失和损害。”
该诉讼称，高地英亩公司“粗心大意和疏忽大意”地未能传达规定或教育其居民在该地开枪的危险，该协会在拉尔夫·亚尔被枪击后“未能提供援助”。
诉状称，通过民事诉讼，该家庭正在寻求“超出本法院管辖范围的”经济赔偿以及诉讼费。
根据美国广播公司新闻获得的一份可能的原因声明，莱斯特告诉警方，他“认为有人试图闯入房子”，并在走向门口之前抓起了一把枪，因为他很害怕。
莱斯特是白人，他声称他看到一名“大约6英尺高的黑人男性”拉门把手，“在开门的几秒钟内开了两枪。”他说那名黑人男子逃跑了，他立即拨打了911。
纳格贝说，亚尔是一名高三学生，即将进入大学，计划学习工程学。他也热爱音乐并演奏低音单簧管，这使他成为入选2024年密苏里州立乐队.
纳格贝说，虽然“人们想把(枪击事件)作为他的身份，但她的儿子”不想被认定为4月13日的孩子。"
“他希望人们看到他的成就，他在音乐方面的成就，他上学的目的和他设计和建造的东西，而不是4月13日发生在他身上的事情。”
Exclusive: Ralph Yarl, teen shot after mistakenly going to the wrong house, seeks 'justice' in civil lawsuit
The family of Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager who wasshot and injuredlast year when he knocked on the wrong door, filed a civil lawsuit in Missouri on Monday against the accused shooter, Andrew Lester.
The complaint, which was filed on behalf of Yarl's mother, Cleo Nagbe, names Lester and the Highland Acres Lakeside Heights Homeowners Association in the Kansas City neighborhood where the shooting took place and argues that their “carelessness” and “negligence” led Yarl to “suffer and sustain permanent injuries.”
“[Ralph] is an anomaly to me honestly, because there is no hatred in his heart. There's no anger or bitterness,” Yarl family attorney Lee Merritt told ABC News in an interview set to air on Monday. “He has a strong sense of justice and he wants us to move forward with pursuing justice for him.”
When asked about the lawsuit, Lester’s attorney, Steven Salmon, told ABC News he could not comment because he was not aware of the suit and had not seen a copy of the complaint. The civil suit comes ahead of Lester’s criminal trial, which is set to begin on Oct. 7.
ABC News reached out to the homeowner’s association, but requests for comment were not immediately returned.
The 85-year-oldwas charged with one count of felony assault in the first degreein connection to the April 13, 2023 shooting and one count of armed criminal action, also a felony. Lester pleaded not guilty and was released on $200,000 bond.
Yarl was shot in the head and in the right arm by Lester, according to police, after the teenager mistakenly arrived at the wrong address to pick up his twin brothers from a friend’s house. Lester maintained he believed someone was trying to break into his house.
“Ralph is slowly coming to terms with what happened,” Yarl’s mother, Cleo Nagbe, told ABC News in an exclusive interview set to air Monday. “In the beginning, his way of dealing with it was minimizing … but trauma catches up with you. So the trauma has fallen away to catch up with him.”
Merritt said that while the civil suit is “not alleging that it was because of racial animus" that Lester allegedly shot Yarl, but "a young Black boy living in Kansas City, Missouri should be able to knock on the wrong door should be able to move freely about his community without fear that he will be criminalized and that he will be violently assaulted.”
The suit accuses Lester of “carelessly and negligently” failing to communicate or “give audible warning” to Yarl prior to the shooting, failing to inquire about the reason Yarl was there and failing to render aid to the teen.
Yarl, who is set to turn 18 next month,suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) after the shootingNagbe said, and his “recovery has been really long” and is “still ongoing."
She added that since his injury, her son has struggled with his school work in a way that he didn’t before.
“That's why I feel bad for him,” she said. “But he doesn't see that there has been a shift in his mental capacity. It's not that he's less smarter, it’s just that when the brain wants to heal, the brain wants to heal. It focuses everything on that healing.”
According to the complaint, Yarl “suffered and sustained permanent injuries, endured pain and suffering of a temporary and permanent nature, experienced disability and losses of normal life activities, was obligated to spend large sums of money for medical care and attention and suffered other losses and damages.”
The lawsuit alleges that Highland Acres “carelessly and negligently” failed to communicate regulations or educate its residents about the dangers of discharging firearms on the grounds and that the association “failed to render aid” to Ralph Yarl after he was shot.
Through the civil suit, the family is seeking financial compensation “in excess of this Court’s jurisdictional limit,” as well as the cost of legal fees, the complaint states.
According to a probable cause statement obtained by ABC News, Lester told police that he "believed someone was attempting to break into the house" and grabbed a gun before going to the door because he was scared.
Lester, who is white, claimed that he saw a "Black male approximately 6 feet tall" pulling on the door handle and "shot twice within a few seconds of opening the door." He said that the Black male ran away and he immediately called 911.
Yarl, who is a senior in high school, is college bound and is planning to study engineering, Nagbe said. He is also passionate about music and plays the bass clarinet, which led him to beselected to the 2024 Missouri All-State Band.
Nagbe said that while “people want to make [the shooting] his identity, her son “does not want to be identified as the April 13 kid.”
“He wants to be seen for his accomplishments, for what he accomplishes in music, what he goes to school for and what he designs and what he builds and not what happened to him on April 13.”
