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.
Hopefully he'll be made to exchange his mama as a roommate for a big dude named Bubba.
He looks a lot like Norman Bates, he'll likely get a better haircut in prison at least. People like this give gun owners a bad name, I hope he gets a maximum sentence.
Maybe the girls were doing some dumb stuff but it looks like the guy shot at the car which was on the street from his bedroom window? That's brave. He indicates he was trying to shoot the tires out? Look at the coke bottle glasses this guy has, I wonder if he had his glasses on.
I don't see where this bozo was in and danger at all. He had no business taking shots at cars on the street. Heck, even if they were on his property he had no reason to fire on them that I can see.
Sounds more like a "I dare you to knock on the haunted house" teenage experience than "harrasment".
Yeah, a car full of cheerleaders is really a threat.
A car full of cheerleaders is a threat, don't ya know?
Amen to that.
He's going to be single for a long time if he keeps shooting whenever a carload of young ladies comes to pay him a visit.
He apparently shot from a window at a car on the street. What's he defending? The street?
I have several rifles and shoot them at the range. I always know what I'm aiming at and I'll hit what I shoot at. Blasting away at a car on the street is crazy. He could have shot people that were not in the car.
If what this guy did makes sense then I suppose when Freepers were chanting in front of Al Gores "house" then it would be OK for Gore to go Mabbearpig on the Freepers and shoot at will?
I'm super serial.
I'd give him a twenty on the basis of his haircut alone!
When did we ever have the right to claim a public street our property?
The neighborhood word on this case:
The local kids have been harassing this fellow and his mom for years. It seems that it was bad luck for these kids that their harassment was what drove an isolated, social outcast over the edge after years of mistreatment.
If a social outcast keeps to himself/herself and doesn't bother you, it doesn't pay to harass the outcast. And it is VERY unwise to pile on with more harassment when others have been doing the same for many years. All persons do have a breaking point.
That being said I feel that this fellow committed a criminal act and should be prosecuted.
Yes, he was clearly wrong to fire at the car in the street when it went around the block. It sounds like he got a lot of this, though. Basically, he's creepy looking and she's cute. If it were the other way around, the sympathy would be also.
Ill bet hes got a really big spooky cellar that opens into a disused mine and had discovered that there was oil deposits under the old funfair.
He would have got away with it to if it wasnt for those pesky kids!!!
Shooting with a video camera rather than a rifle would have much more effective if he felt harrassed.
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