86-year-old US man who shot Black teen dies before sentencing

An 86-year-old Missouri man who pleaded guilty to shooting a Black teenager who rang his doorbell by mistake has died ahead of his sentencing, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Andrew Lester, who is white, pleaded guilty on Friday to felony assault for the shooting of Ralph Yarl, who was 16 years old at the time.

Yarl recovered from his wounds and is now attending a university in Texas.

Lester had been scheduled to be sentenced on March 7 but Zachary Thompson, the prosecuting attorney for Clay County, said he had died.

"While the legal proceedings have now concluded, we acknowledge that Mr Lester did take responsibility for his actions by pleading guilty in this case," Thompson said.

Yarl was shot twice, once in the head and once in the arm, in April 2023 when he rang the doorbell at the wrong house while trying to pick up his twin brothers from a play date at a friend's home in Kansas City.

Lester told the authorities he believed someone was trying to break into his home.

Then-president Joe Biden spoke with Yarl on the phone following the shooting.

"No parent should have to worry that their kid will be shot after ringing the wrong doorbell," Biden said. "We've got to keep up the fight against gun violence."

Deadly shootings are a regular occurrence in the United States, a country of around 330 million people that is awash with an estimated 400 million guns.

But Yarl's case sparked a particular outcry as the nation continues to grapple with a long history of a lack of accountability for violence against African Americans.