Missouri Man Pleads Not Guilty in Shooting of Teen Who Mistakenly Came to His Door

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Andrew D. Lester, the 84-year-old man charged in the shooting of Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old high school student, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in a brief appearance in a county courthouse in Missouri.

Lester, who entered the small courtroom in Liberty, Missouri, through a side entrance, approached the judge slowly using a cane and was steadied at one point by a deputy sheriff. Lester said little in court, speaking softly and answering basic questions.

The appearance came after the prosecutor in Clay County charged Lester with assault in the first degree and armed criminal action. For days, residents of Kansas City have reacted to the shooting with shock and dismay, while Yarl, who was shot twice after coming to Lester’s front door by mistake, has been recovering from his injuries at home.

Lester told the police after the shooting that he fired his gun because he was “scared to death” of being physically harmed.

Lester lives in a modest beige house outfitted with surveillance cameras, though there is little crime in his quiet neighborhood near the northern edge of Kansas City. Neighbors said that his wife was recently moved to a nursing home, leaving him alone in his house. He spent considerable time at home in a living room chair, watching conservative news programs at high volume, a relative said.

Lester did not speak publicly outside of his courtroom appearance, and attempts to reach him earlier were not successful. Lester’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a phone call. No one answered the door at his home, and he did not respond to a note left at the house, which had a sign outside alerting visitors to security cameras and a “No Solicitors” placard by the door.

Klint Ludwig, a grandson, said in an interview that he and his grandfather used to be close. The two had become estranged in part, Ludwig said, because Lester had embraced right-wing conspiracy theories.

Another grandson, Daniel Ludwig, said in a text that it was not accurate to describe his grandfather as espousing extreme right-wing views and conspiracy theories, but he declined to comment in detail.

Zachary Thompson, the Clay County prosecutor, said this week that there was a “racial component” to the shooting but did not elaborate. Lester is white; Yarl is Black.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .