Ohio man kills wife, daughter at Cracker Barrel

BARBARA RODRIGUEZ

THOMAS J. SHEERAN

Asso­ci­ated Press

CLEVELAND — A man whose wife had just told him she was leav­ing him shot and killed her and their young daugh­ter, who was cel­e­brat­ing her birth­day, inside a crowded Cracker Bar­rel restau­rant in a Cleve­land sub­urb, then was killed by police as he fled.

Kevin Allen came into the restau­rant in sub­ur­ban Brook­lyn on Thurs­day night with a shot­gun and, wit­nesses said, “selec­tively” fired on his fam­ily. The shoot­ing cre­ated panic and con­fu­sion in the restau­rant, and a man­ager helped get peo­ple out through a rear door, a wit­ness said.

In addi­tion to the death of Kathe­rina Allen, 42, and Kerri Allen, 10, the couple’s other 10-year-old daugh­ter, Kayla, was wounded and in crit­i­cal con­di­tion, author­i­ties said. Accord­ing to police records, Thurs­day was Kerri Allen’s birthday.

The restau­rant is in a busy com­mer­cial cor­ri­dor near Inter­state 480 just south of Cleveland.

Kathe­rina had called 911 from inside, say­ing her hus­band was upset because she had told him she was leav­ing him. He left the restau­rant and was cir­cling the park­ing lot, she told police. She also told police she feared he might become violent.

“I’m hav­ing some spouse prob­lems,” Kathe­rina Allen tells the dis­patcher in the 911 call.

She told the dis­patcher that her hus­band had said he’d got­ten rid of a shot­gun, but that she’d seen him with shot­gun shells. She also told the dis­patcher that Kevin Allen was call­ing one of her daugh­ters in the restaurant.

At the end of the call, Allen says, “He’s here and the police are here, too. I have to_”. She then stops speaking.

The dis­patcher says, “Wait in the lobby for the offi­cers. Do not go out­side. Let them talk to him, OK? Ma’am?” The call then ends in a jum­ble of noise.

Offi­cers heard gun­shots when they arrived and saw Allen, 51, of Strongsville, leav­ing the restau­rant with a gun. Police Chief Scott Mielke said offi­cers shot him when he refused to sur­ren­der. He died at the scene.

David Allen, who iden­ti­fied him­self as Kevin Allen’s brother, answered a num­ber listed for Kevin Allen’s mother and said the fam­ily had no comment.

Accord­ing to police, Kevin Allen was arrested in 1995 for domes­tic vio­lence. He was also arrested for bur­glary and theft in 2008.

Doc­u­ments filed by Kevin and Kathe­rina Allen in fed­eral bank­ruptcy court in Cleve­land last year indi­cate they owed $60,000 to var­i­ous cred­i­tors, includ­ing a $20,000 hos­pi­tal bill. Other cred­i­tors included sev­eral credit card com­pa­nies and two other hos­pi­tals. The fil­ing was closed March 28.

Records also show that Kevin Allen filed for bank­ruptcy in 1991 and 2004, and that Kathe­rina Allen filed for bank­ruptcy in 2000.

Other court records show Kevin Allen has an adult daugh­ter from a pre­vi­ous mar­riage that ended in 1995.

Some­one inside the restau­rant, Robert Lovelace, told WKYC-TV that the shoot­ing scene was chaotic.

“We all ran,” Lovelace said. He said peo­ple in the restau­rant didn’t know what was hap­pen­ing. “We just told them, ‘Look, let’s get out of here,’” he said.

The man­ager helped move peo­ple to safety through a rear door, the com­pany said.

The restau­rant will remain closed until the inves­ti­ga­tion is com­pleted, Cracker Bar­rel spokes­woman Julie K. Davis said in an email from cor­po­rate offices in Lebanon, Tenn.

“This appears to be the result of a domes­tic dis­pute between two guests and no Cracker Bar­rel employ­ees were involved,” she said.

Posted by AP News on Apr 13 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.