Neighbour chokes up recalling moment teen banged on door for help after shooting
One of the neighbours in the Ralph Yarl shooting has opened up about the traumatic experience of the teen knocking on her door moments after being shot.
Jodi Rae spoke to TMZ Live about her experience, becoming emotional when she recalled 16-year-old Ralph banging on her door, desperately looking for help.
She explained how she couldn't see out her door and wasn't sure what was going on outside. She said she hadn't heard gunshots, but saw Ralph was in dire need of help - so she called 911.
Jodi explained the operator told her there was an active shooter in the area, and advised her not to open the door.
The home of Andrew Lester, the 84-year-old white homeowner accused of shooting Black teen Ralph Yarl (Getty Images)It was a huge decision for Jodi - she wanted to ensure her own son stayed safe in their home with an active shooter situation, but also wanted to help Ralph who she could see falling to his knees through her window.
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Once she saw another neighbour walking outside, Jodi made her choice and decided the danger must have passed.
She said she ran to Ralph's side, and seeing pools of blood outside her door, realised he had been shot.
Becoming emotional as she recalled what happened, talking about the decision to follow police advice and not open the door, she said: "I regret that, knowing now. But at the time we were all thinking it was an active shooter, they kept saying there's an active shooter in the area, don't open the door, stay away from the doors and windows.
"And he jiggled the handle, he was trying to get help. He kept saying 'I need help, I've been shot'."
Jodi said she went back to the window because the knocking had stopped.
Police officer drives past the house, where 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot Thursday (Charlie Riedel/AP/REX/Shutterstock)"I went to the window, and he was standing on the street facing away from my house so I never actually got to see his face," she said.
The 911 operator asked her to give a description, which she says she did, before saying: "Oh my god, he's going down to his knees. I go 'I think he needs help' she said 'you don't know where the shooter's at, the shooter could be around your house, it could be outside somewhere, you don't know where the shooter is, you need to stay away from the windows and the doors'."
Through tears, she continued saying she said: "Oh no, he's gone to the left, he's slid his arm down and went to the left side and he was laying on the ground. I went 'I think he's hurt I think he needs help'."
The 911 operator again advised her there was an active shooter situation and to stay away from doors and windows.
At this point, Jodi said she hung up and went downstairs to stand with her son, saying she knew "something wasn't right".
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She said she then went "Screw this", saying: "I went out in my pyjamas and bare feet as soon as I opened the door i saw blood everywhere.
"I tell my son, I go 'oh he's been shot', and there's blood everywhere."
Becoming increasingly emotional, Jodi recalled: "So I went outside, trying to dodge the blood that was all over my door, my front door, inside and outside my storm door, my railing, my porch, all down the stairs, out the drive, and it was pooling underneath him.
"And I was like 'what happened?' and they were like he's been shot, and I was like 'what's your name?' He said my name's Ralph."
Another neighbour then asked who shot Ralph, and he reportedly replied: "The neighbour over there."
Ralph's parents had asked him to pick up his 11-year-old twin brothers at an address on 115th Terrace, Kansas City. But the 16-year-old accidentally went to a home on 115th Street.
After ringing the doorbell, he was allegedly shot twice by Andrew Lester, 84, through the door - hitting the boy in the arm and in the head.
Ralph Yarl was in the school band (Uncredited/AP/REX/Shutterstock)
Booking photo of Andrew Lester, 84, who has been charged in the shooting of Ralph Yarl (AP)Jodi asked her son to bring some towels out, saying: "He ran them out and the gentleman that jumped the fence on the next street over he was on the ground with me.
"He was holding his hands, and he was like 'how are you feeling? Do you feel cold?' He was like 'I'm very alert'."
She said they then lifted his head slowly so they could put a towel down to apply pressure to the wound.
Jodi then recalled Ralph said: "I've been shot in the head and the arm."
She said he said: "I just went over there and rang the doorbell and the guy shot me in the head."
Yarl was shot at point-blank range in the head, but miraculously survived the bullet.
She said she asked him about school and sports to try and keep him calm, because he told her "it hurts" and he "wanted to cry for a second".
After talking to him about his sporting interest in running track and playing the clarinet in the band, she said he wanted to cry again.
Ralph Yarl pictured after returning home from hospital"I said look at me, you're going to be okay," Jodi said.
She said the neighbours have had hate directed at them, saying "horrible signs" were put up, and people are "lashing out" at neighbours because "they think we did not help".
However, she said "numerous people called the police and we were told there was an active shooter in the area, to lock your doors and stay away from your doors and windows."
"That was somebody's child," she said. "And that's the first thing I told my son. The medics came in fast, took him away crazy fast, and I told my son, I was like 'that is somebody's [son]."
She described having to sit on the rock wall outside her house as it was turned into a crime scene, due to the blood everywhere outside. Jodi explained how the next day she cleaned the blood off.
"All I could do was cry because that was somebody's child's blood on my door."
She said neighbours were in "shock" and "couldn't believe it". But that "nothing compares to what that young man is living through every day. The focus needs to be on him".
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