KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A family who lost their son nearly six years ago says the Ralph Yarl shooting triggered memories of when they lost 19-year-old Chris Hutson to a road-rage shooting.
Hutson was on the phone with his parents, Carthesa and Christopher Hutson Sr., driving down Holmes Road before he was shot and killed by John Young.
“We have work to do,” Carthesa Hutson said. "This can happen in our city, this has happened in our city; it's happened to my son, it's happened to countless other people [whose] stories haven't been told ... now it's happened to Ralph."
The Hutson family says race played a factor in their son’s death, which has led them to continuously facilitate difficult conversations with their two other children.
"You have to have this conversation with your child — like when you go outside, make sure you're not looking this way, make sure your hood is this way, make sure when you get stopped by the cops you have hands on the steering wheel," Carthesa Hutson said.
Clay County prosecutors say they're investigating racial components in the shooting of Ralph Yarl.
“You try not to make every situation about our son, but it’s very triggering when you see children and kids that are just doing everyday things, and then they don't come home,” Christopher Hutson Sr. said.
Chris was an organ donor and saved the lives of countless people including Gary Dixon, who received Chris' heart.
The Hutson family will be joining other parents in a Lives on the Line protest, calling for an end to gun violence, Thursday at 83rd and State Line Road.
