THE 84-year-old white man who shot Ralph Yarl, when the black teenager went to his door by mistake, pleaded not guilty to first degree assault on Wednesday.

Authorities say that Andrew Lester shot the teenager at point blank in the head after Mr Yarl confused the address with the home where he was supposed to pick up his younger brothers.

Mr Yarl survived the shooting. 

Mr Lester told police that he lives alone and was “scared to death” when he saw the black teenager on the porch because he thought someone was trying to break in, police said in court documents.

Mr Yarl’s family attorney Lee Merritt has urged the US Department of Justice to charge Mr Lester with a hate crime, with Mr Merritt noting that Mr Yarl “was armed only with his black skin.”

Justice Department officials have so far not responded.

The case is among three in recent days involving young people who were shot after mistakenly showing up in the wrong places. 

A 20-year-old woman was killed in upstate New York when the car she was in pulled into the wrong driveway. In Texas, two cheerleaders were shot after one of them mistakenly got into a car thinking it was hers.