Posted on 08/25/2006 7:41:16 AM PDT by Teflonic
WORTHINGTON, Ohio Aug 24, 2006 (AP)— Someone shot at a carload of teenage girls, critically wounding one of them, after some of them had stepped near a house that had been rumored by fellow students to be haunted, police said.
A man who lives in the house, Allen S. Davis, was arrested Wednesday in the shooting of 17-year-old Rachel Barezinsky the night before. He told reporters Wednesday from jail that he was trying to drive off trespassers and didn't intend to hurt the girls.
Barezinsky remained in critical condition Thursday at Ohio State University Medical Center, a nursing supervisor said.
Barezinsky's aunt, Tina Wedebrook, told reporters Wednesday that the girl had surgery to relieve swelling in her brain and had been able to squeeze visitors' hands, but was having trouble moving the left side of her body.
Davis' home, across from a cemetery and overgrown with trees and weeds, had a reputation among local teens for being haunted. Students at Thomas Worthington High School in suburban Columbus had been daring each other to knock on the door or go in the yard, police Lt. Doug Francis said.
Barezinsky and two of her friends got out of their car parked near the home about 10 p.m. and took a few steps onto the property, Francis said. They jumped back in when a girl still in the car sounded the horn, and they heard what they thought were firecrackers as they drove away, he said.
The girls drove around the block, and Barezinsky was struck in the head and shoulder while sitting in the car as they passed the house again, Francis said. The other girls were not injured.
Hundreds gathered on the high school football field Wednesday night for a vigil for Barezinsky, a cheerleader at the school of about 1,700 students.
Police said Davis a self-employed nonfiction writer who lives with his 64-year-old mother, he told investigators he was aiming for the car's tires.
Davis, 40, appeared before a judge Thursday on five counts of felonious assault. His bond was set at $500,000.
Davis told reporters Wednesday he had prepared the rifle after numerous instances of trespassing.
I was thinking Satan worshipper.
From his own words, he did not feel threatened, but felt harassed. Deadly force is not a legal response to harassment.
I am surprised at how many are giving these teens a pass for their actions. Many seem to think actions don't have consequences.
I'm not giving them a pass at all.
The teenagers' behavior was despicable. I believe that they were cruelly harassing the Davis family because they were different and they believed that Allen Davis and his mother were beneath them.
Worthington is a bit of an upscale suburb of Columbus. This fellow and his mother do not fit in at all and apparently the neighborhood kids let them know that -- in their own way -- for quite a while.
I do have some empathy for the Davis family. But his own words betray a self defense scenario for himself.
According to some very quick research I did, the population breakdown of Worthington, Ohio (approx. 13,202 people) is as follows:
~ Blue Jays ~
His initial statement was, "I didn't know what their weaponry was or intentions. In a situation like that you assume the worst case scenario of you are going to protect your family from a home invasion or murder." Davis, said he fired again and to his knowledge that did the trick.
Initially, there was nothing mentioned about firing at the tires. He said he regretted it but why were the girls acting in a delinquent manner.
There was a 'haunted house' that us high-schoolers and our dates would visit after dark for a thrill. The empty house was in the part of town where if you did it today, you'd come out of it dead. We were a lot safer back in the bad old days of Jim Crow.
Haunted House rage
Sorry Tom.I don't agree.
There was no imminent threat here that he was defending himself against. With no imminent threat,he can do what the rest of us do: dial 911 and get a squad car out there to investigate.
Ratcheting up to shooting into a car full of teenagers isn't self defense.
This wasn't defense of property. The car was fleeing and he was still shooting at them. You don't have the right to kill someone because they are harrassing you. That's what restraining orders are for.
You can also post your property as a no trespassing zone, which may or may not give you some additional rights against trepassers. But my guess is this guy didn't do that either.
Shooting at people outside of the house, especially when you would see they were kids playing pranks is both mental and grossly criminal.
Send him to Iraq where he can guard some police station...he's got such good night vision.
Who says? You? What if he got the wrong address? What if a kid lost his dog and was wondering across this idiots yard? Just start shooting if you feel like it?
What a crock defense!
There is no defense for shooting at a car on a public street from a window in you house.
So, you defend the rights of teens to harass and trespass whenever they feel like it. How Liberal of you.
Tsk, tsk. Down to name caling eh? What kind of man, especially one with a firearm, can justify shooting at people in a car on the street because of "harass and trespass"? He didn't shoot at anyone while they were in the yard.
Apparently, people like this guy and you don't have the balls to handle something like this correctly. You don't shoot at a car on the street from the safety of a window in your house. That's just being a pu$$y.
The teens shouldn't get a pass for the harrassment. But noway do you deserve a shot in the head for harrassment. There are many actions this guy could have taken.
Or he could do what I did, the first halloween I owned a house. I changed all the lightbulbs in the front to red bulbs. Didn't have a single trick or treater.
"Or he could do what I did, the first halloween I owned a house. I changed all the lightbulbs in the front to red bulbs. Didn't have a single trick or treater."
And that worked because....?
Because no one was brave enough to approach a house whose windows were all glowing red.
In other words, he could have made the house scary, and solved 99% of his harrassment problem. A solution that he shouldn't have to resort to, but one that is still infinitely better than shooting a teenage girl in the head.
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