http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation/story/241831.html

Aftermath of ‘spooky house’ shooting haunts an Ohio town

 

Pictured in April after having surgery on her skull, Rachel Barezinsky was left partly paralyzed when Allen S. Davis shot her after she and some friends came to his house on a “ghost hunt.”

WORTHINGTON, Ohio | It has come to be known as the Spooky House Incident.

It is the story of a group of teenagers in a quaint older suburb of Columbus who tried to scare themselves on a “ghost hunt” and a recluse who responded with gunfire.

A high school cheerleader, Rachel Barezinsky, is crippled for life. Allen S. Davis was sentenced last month to 19 years in prison for what he said was defending his home.

The case has left people torn. Some think Davis got what he deserved for overreacting to teenagers’ antics, but many others see the girls as picking on Davis and facing no legal consequences for trespassing.

“I felt kind of sorry for both sides,” Jane Leppert said. “Although I feel very sorry for the girl who was shot, she unfortunately messed around with a kind of paranoid individual who felt the need to protect himself, even against kids.”

At 10 p.m. on Aug. 22, 2006, Barezinsky and two other girls sneaked a few feet onto Davis’ property to scare themselves because they thought that the house was spooky. They jumped in the car after their friend honked.

As the girls drove off they heard what they thought were firecrackers. It actually was shots from a rifle that Davis, then 40, had purchased to scare away prowlers.

When the girls returned to check out the noise, a bullet struck Barezinsky, then 17. Her left arm and leg were paralyzed.

Davis’ house sits across from a cemetery. He shares the house with his mother, who has a cauldron-shaped planter in the yard that gained her a witchy reputation among children.

Police determined that the girls were not trespassing because they had not gone far enough onto the property and no clearly visible signs had been posted.

Davis said from prison that he did not intend to hurt anyone. He pleaded guilty to two counts of felonious assault.

“I didn’t know what their weaponry was, what their intentions were,” Davis said. “In a situation like that, you assume the worst-case scenario if you’re going to protect your family from a possible home invasion and murder.”