President Joe Biden has invited 16-year-old high school student Ralph Yarl, who was recently wounded, to visit the Oval Office once he recovers from his wounds.
The president tweeted on Tuesday that he and Yarl had spoken and that Yarl had accepted an invitation to meet with him. Vice President Kamala Harris expressed her approval of Yarl and her concern about him on Twitter.
Biden tweeted on Tuesday that he spoke on the phone with Yarl and his family. He added that no parent should worry about their child being shot after accidentally ringing the wrong doorbell.
He said we must keep fighting to reduce gun violence in our communities.
Biden said they’d “see him in the Oval Office” once he got better.
Yarl made the fatal mistake of pulling up to the wrong house when he went to pick up his brothers from a friend’s house.
Andrew Lester, the homeowner who shot Yarl, claimed self-defense, saying he was protecting himself from an intruder. After discovering that Yarl had been shot in the head and upper right arm, he was rushed to the hospital for treatment.
Yarl was released from the hospital and now rests at home, while Lester has been charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action.
Interestingly, an invitation to the White House was extended to Yarl but not to the families of the victims of the shooting at Covenant School in Nashville.
Also, in similar circumstances, Kaylin Gillis, 20, was shot and killed in Hebron, NY.
She and her friends were in a car, looking for another friend’s house. When they entered the wrong driveway, the homeowner, Kevin Monahan, 65, fired two shots, killing Gillis.
No phone call from Biden was made to the family. Many think that politics influence Biden’s phone calls.
