Teen girl shot looking for ghosts
Owner fires from inside 'spooky' house
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WORTHINGTON, Ohio - A teenager out looking for ghosts with friends was
shot in the head and critically wounded near a house considered spooky
by local teens, police said Wednesday.
A man who lives in the house, Allen S. Davis, 40, was charged in the
shooting and told reporters Wednesday from jail that he was trying to
drive off trespassers and didn't intend to hurt the teen girls, whom he
called juvenile delinquents.

He said he fired his rifle out his bedroom window Tuesday night after
hearing voices outside the home, which is across the street from a
cemetery and blocked from view by overgrown trees and shrubbery.
"I didn't know what their weaponry was, what their intentions were," he
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."

The 17-year-old girl, Rachel Barezinsky, and two of her friends got out
of their car parked near the home about 10 p.m. and took a few steps on
the property, police Lt. Doug Francis said. They jumped back in when a
girl in the car sounded the horn, and they heard what they thought were
firecrackers as they drove away.
The girls - all seniors at Thomas Worthington High School in suburban
Columbus - drove around the block, and Barezinsky was struck while
sitting in the car as they passed the house again and heard a second
round of what turned out to be gunshots, Francis said.

Davis, a self-employed nonfiction writer, said he had prepared the rifle
after numerous previous instances of trespassing, but he didn't know
until Wednesday that teens considered his house haunted. Police should
charge the teens with trespassing, he said.
"It's really something how homeowners defend themselves and the way the
laws are written, we're the ones brought up on charges while the
perpetrators get little or nothing."

Francis said police do not intend to pursue criminal charges against the
girls at this point.
As the girls' car drove away from the house, the driver noticed she had
blood on her arm and passengers in the back seat also discovered blood,
police said. They saw Barezinsky had collapsed in the front passenger's
seat and drove until they could flag down two police officers. The other
girls were not injured.
Some classmates at the high school, which has about 1,700 students, were
planning a vigil Wednesday night at the football stadium.
Principal Rich Littell said he had talked to Barezinsky, a well-known
cheerleader, at a freshman welcome dance on Monday night.

"It just kills you. She's a great kid, very, very athletic. She was
looking forward to ... the tumbling she was going to do at the football
game," he said.

Davis, who was charged with five counts of felonious assault, told
officers he had been annoyed by trespassers and that he was aiming for
the car's tires from his first-floor bedroom, police said.
"He admitted to never calling the police, but it just had been occurring
and he got frustrated and he was upset, saying someone trespassed on his
property and he was protecting his property," Francis said.

Barezinsky, who also was struck in the shoulder, was taken to Ohio State
University Medical Center in critical condition, police said.
The hospital would not provide an update on her condition Wednesday.
Francis said Davis' home had a reputation at the high school for being
haunted by ghosts and witches, and students have been daring each other
to knock on the door or go in the yard.

Zoning officers have visited the home where Davis lives with his
64-year-old mother because of complaints that the property has not been
kept up, police said.

Betty Davis, 69, who lives around the corner, said Allen Davis was quiet
and kept to himself. She said she's not related to him.

"I guess last night was the last straw," she said.

"I think it blew everybody's mind it would come to this."