Rachel's Miracle

Worthington teen shot outside ’spooky’ house released from hospital

Associated Press

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Children’s Hospital Rachel Barezinsky wears a graduation decoration on her helmet as she is released from Children's Hospital Monday.

A 17-year-old girl has been released from the hospital, nearly three months after she was shot in the head outside a house she and her friends considered “spooky,” the teen's parents said.

Rachel Barezinsky will continue to work with therapists on an outpatient basis, her parents said in a statement released Monday.

The family declined to release further details about her treatment or condition. Photographs released by Children's Hospital show a smiling Barezinsky, her head protected by a helmet, working with a speech pathologist and walking with a cane.

Barezinsky, of  Worthington, was critically wounded Aug. 22 after she and four friends were sneaking around the house, which sits across from a cemetery.

Allen Davis, 40, who lives in the house with his mother, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of felonious assault in the shooting.

In jailhouse interviews, Davis has admitted to firing the rifle at the carload of girls, but claimed he didn't mean to harm the teens, whom he considered trespassers on his property.