This Boo Radley Had a Gun

I just read this story, by Rachel Hoag of the AP:

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Aug. 24) - The father of a 17-year-old girl who was shot in the head while ghost hunting with friends said Friday that the group had been out for harmless fun.

"It doesn't make any sense. These were five good kids and this was something they've done in the past," Greg Barezinsky said.

Rachel Barezinsky was injured Tuesday night when a man who lives in a house considered spooky by local teenagers shot at the carload of five girls, police said.

Barezinsky, a high school senior whose classmates started classes Friday, remained in critical condition, the family said. She remained on a breathing machine and neck brace but was able to give a "thumbs up" sign, they said.

"It's going to be a long haul," Greg Barezinsky said. "It's going to take time."

The girls and other high school students have gone out to cemeteries to hunt for ghosts before, Greg Barezinsky said at Ohio State University Medical Center.

Family members said they did not want to discuss the felonious assault charges against Allen S. Davis, 40, who lives in the house with his mother.

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.

Three of the girls had gotten out of the car and taken a few steps onto Davis' property, but then jumped back in and circled the block. Barezinsky was struck while sitting in the car as it passed the house again.

Davis has told reporters he fired from his bedroom window to scare away trespassers and didn't mean to hurt the girls. He told officers he was aiming for the car's tires. He called the girls juvenile delinquents and said they shouldn't have been on his property.

He told reporters Wednesday he had prepared the rifle after numerous instances of trespassing.

"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," Davis said.

Francis said Davis told investigators he had never called police about any problems with trespassers.

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Reading this story reminded me, of course, of the spooky Bradley residence in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. But while Boo Radley proved to be both misunderstood and, ultimately heroic, saving Scout and Jem from Bob Ewell's night-time knife attack, this Boo Radley not only shot a teenager, but had the gall to defend his actions by appealing to his homeowner's rights.

When children can't live out ghost stories, and when property is more valued than human life, we live in a sick and depraved society.