Woman angry that shooter got off lightly

Cathleen Allison/Nevada AppealB'Sghetti's Proprietor Scott Doerr talks Tuesday about the plea agreement reached in the case involving downtown business windows being shot out in February.

Cathleen Allison/Nevada AppealB'Sghetti's Proprietor Scott Doerr talks Tuesday about the plea agreement reached in the case involving downtown business windows being shot out in February.

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Eight months after a woman and her daughter were fired on in their vehicle by a BB gun-wielding spree shooter, the Gardnerville mother is still frightened by the experience.

News on Tuesday that the man responsible pleaded guilty to one gross misdemeanor count - despite allegations that his shooting spree spanned from South Lake Tahoe, through Carson City to the four-way stop in Dresslerville where he encountered Stephanie Carney and Brianna, 13 - has brought her to tears.

"Today I'm very angry. He shot at my face. That's how I feel, and nobody seems to care. Nobody cares about what he's done to me and my daughter," Carney said.

David Killen, 23, admitted Monday in the Ninth Judicial District Court in Minden that on Feb. 12 he fired his CO2-powered BB gun at store windows in Carson City and on vehicles in South Lake Tahoe, Carson City and Gardnerville.

He faces up to a year in jail, a $2,000 fine and restitution when sentenced Dec. 10.

Carney said she and her daughter were on their way to buy Valentine's Day cards for a class of second-graders where Brianna is a classroom helper when their vehicle faced Killen's at a four-way stop in the Gardnerville Ranchos.

As both cars began to move through the intersection, Carney said, she wasn't paying any attention to Killen, until her driver's-door window exploded.

"There was a huge bang and my window shattered," she recalled. "There was glass everywhere. My arms had glass shrouds all in them, it was on my legs, in my hair, in my shoes."

She said she didn't know at the time that a BB had shattered her window, but she was certain it was some type of gunshot.

Carney immediately called police and Killen's vehicle was pulled over a few blocks away.

She said deputies took her to where he was arrested and she identified him, as did her daughter. Months later, at the request of the defense attorney, Carney and her daughter again identified Killen in a photo lineup.

Now she wonders what that was all for.

"I feel like he's been given a slap on the hand and being told not to do it again. Wasn't that what prison was for? This man got out of prison after three years for arson and six months later he does this," she said. "It was the most frightening thing that I have ever been through in my life and I hope and pray that nobody ever has to go through that, because it is scary, and it's senseless. I don't know what this young man got out of all of this. I just don't know."

• Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.

Contact Anna Martin, Nevada Division of Parole and Probation at 684-2433

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