Missouri
Ralph Yarl, Black teenager shot by white man, now in Missouri’s all-state band
A Black teenager who was shot by an elderly white man after ringing the wrong doorbell when picking up his siblings has secured a spot on Missouri’s all-state band, less than a year after suffering a traumatic brain injury from the shooting.
Ralph Yarl, who is 17, was shot in the head and arm by Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old homeowner in Kansas City, Missouri, in April last year after going to the wrong house to pick up his twin brothers. The case reignited debate in the US over race and gun violence issues.
Yarl has now been selected to play second chair bass clarinet for Missouri’s all-state band, North Kansas city schools has announced. Yarl, who also plays the saxophone, has previously spoken of how music helped him during his recovery from the shooting. He will perform at the Missouri Music Educators Association annual conference in Lake of the Ozarks this month, according to a North Kansas City Schools Facebook post.
Just 16 years old when he went to pick up his brothers from a friends’ house, which he’d never been to before, Yarl mistakenly rang the doorbell at Lester’s premises a block away. Lester, a retired aircraft mechanic, then came to the door and, according to Yarl, said “Don’t come here ever again.”
“I hear the door open. I see this old man, and I’m assuming, ‘Oh, this must be like their grandpa,’ and then he pulls out his gun, and I’m like, whoa!” Yarl told ABC News.
“So I back up. He points it at me. So I kind of, like, brace and I turn my head. I’m thinking there’s no way he’s actually going to shoot, right? The door [isn’t] even open. He’s going to shoot through his glass door and glass is going get everywhere? And then it happened.”
Yarl said that he was bleeding from his head and tried to seek help from a neighbor across the street, who declined to help. He had to knock on the door of multiple houses before someone opened the door and told him to wait for the police.
The teenager subsequently underwent neurological surgery for the injuries he received. He has said that he suffers lingering effects, saying his “mind is just foggy, like I can’t concentrate on the things that would be easy for me to do”.
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Lester told police that he believed someone was attempting to break into his house and that he grabbed a gun to protect himself. Missouri is a “stand your ground” state where people can use deadly force if they reasonably believe they are at risk of violent attack.
In August, a Missouri judge ordered that Lester stand trial for the shooting. At the hearing, several people in the courtroom were wearing shirts that read ‘Justice for Ralph’ and ‘Ringing a doorbell is not a crime.’ Lester has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree assault and armed criminal action and was released on a $200,000 bond.
Missouri
Missouri Highway Patrol investigates death of staffer at youth ranch in Reynolds County; 1 juvenile arrested
BLACK, Mo. (KY3) – The Missouri Highway Patrol is investigating the death of a woman at a youth ranch in Reynolds County.
Authorities responded to the Valley Springs Youth Ranch in Black on Wednesday around 3 p.m. They found a 69-year-old female staff member dead. Investigators have not released the victim’s identity.
Authorities detained a juvenile. Investigators say this was an isolated incident.
Investigators say the case is open.
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Copyright 2026 KY3. All rights reserved.
Missouri
Most Missouri state and Columbia offices closed Friday; Columbia parking meters will not be enforced during Fourth of July weekend | 93.9 The Eagle
Most Missouri state and county offices are closed Friday to observe the Fourth of July holiday.
Most state offices are closed except emergency services like the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The Fourth of July is one of Missouri’s 13 state holidays. County courthouses are also closed today, so there is no court.
Most Columbia city offices are closed as well, except emergency services like police and fire. Columbia sanitation employees will be collecting residential and commercial trash Friday morning, and the landfill will be open to the public with normal operating hours.
Columbia’s Go COMO bus system will operate on its normal schedule on Friday. While Go COMO won’t operate fixed-route or paratransit service on Saturday, they will run shuttles between downtown Columbia parking garages and Stephens Lake park Saturday evening from 5-11 pm for the Fire in the Sky celebration.
Parking enforcement in city parking garages and at on-street parking spaces is suspended from Friday through Sunday.
What it means: The Fourth of July is one of Missouri’s 13 official state holidays. The holiday will be observed on Friday, since the 4th is on a Saturday this year.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City, Missouri, City Council voted Thursday to begin an effort to restore the once-grand Federal Reserve building on Grand Avenue in the city’s downtown.
Courtesy of Alicia M Brady, Urban Alicia Photography
The council approved an ordinance that directs KCMO City Manager Mario Vasquez to begin the receivership process “for the vacant nuisance property known as the former Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.”
The building closed in 2008 and neglect followed the closure, according to a docket memo to the city council that lays out problems with the building.
You can read the docket memo below.
“The site’s vacancy and nuisance conditions directly and increasingly depreciate the value of nearby properties and depress regional commercial activity; and residents and property owners near the site lament the nearly two decades of inactivity and decomposition, citing both aesthetic and security concerns involving the site’s crumbling exterior, graffiti covering the interior, broken glass and refuse strewn throughout, exposed ceilings with materials left dangling, an unsecured elevator shaft, and the site’s serving as a haven for squatting, fires, and other chronic nuisance activities; and the city has received multiple reports of property violations at the site over time, including falling debris and people entering through unsecured entrances, and the current developer’s failure to prevent and remediate these nuisances violates Code of Ordinances Sections 48-31 and 48-46(c), among other provisions.”
A developer bought the site in 2013, and the city approved a financial incentive deal in 2016 for the developer to build a 284-room hotel, a 450-space parking garage and a 40,000-square-foot family entertainment center.
The cost of the development was estimated at $182 million, but after investing $42 million in asbestos removal and interior demolition by April 2021, no other progress has been made on the project.
In 2022, the current developer got a temporary restraining order to avoid foreclosure after a default notice “alleging failure to maintain property insurance, unpaid property taxes, and outstanding mechanic’s liens,” according to a docket memo.
KSHB 41 News reached out to Alicia Brady, an Iowa-based photographer whose work includes photographs of the building’s decay.
Courtesy of Alicia M Brady, Urban Alicia Photography
“I was thrilled to learn that the mayor came across my post and photographs and that they helped spark action toward getting the former Federal Reserve building back on track for rehabilitation,” Brady said in an email to KSHB 41 News. “As someone who has been documenting abandoned and historic buildings since I was 15 years old, it’s incredibly rewarding to know that my work may have played a small part in preserving such an important piece of Kansas City’s history.”
KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas posted on LinkedIn about Thursday’s council action.
“Since 2008, the old Federal Reserve Bank building has sat empty, left open to the elements, vandals, fires, neglect and decay,” Mayor Lucas said. “ No more. We’re taking action to ensure accountability from property owners and new life in this tower in the heart of our downtown.”
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