A White woman who fired through her front and killed a Black neighbor was arrested Tuesday, authorities said, in a case that’s put Florida’s divisive “stand your ground law” back in the spotlight. The shooting sparked widespread anger and protests.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office said Susan Lorincz, 58, was charged with manslaughter with a firearm and other offenses.
Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old mother of four, was killed Friday night in a shooting Sheriff Billy Woods said was the culmination of a 2-and-a-half-year feud between the neighbors.
They lived in the rolling hills south of Ocala, a north Florida city that’s the heart of the state’s horse country.
Authorities came under pressure Tuesday to arrest and charge the woman in a case that has put Florida’s divisive stand your ground law back into the spotlight.
In a video posted on Facebook late Tuesday night, the sheriff said this was not a stand your ground case but “simply a killing.”
“Now many of you were struggling to understand why there was not an immediate arrest. The laws here in the state of Florida are clear. Now I may not like them. I may not agree with them. But however, those laws I will follow.”
The sheriff said.
The video shared by the sheriff’s office shows two detectives and a deputy leading down a hallway with her hands behind her back.
Earlier Tuesday, about three dozen mostly Black protesters gathered outside the Marion County Judicial Center to demand that the shooter be arrested in the country’s latest flashpoint over race and gun violence.
The chief prosecutor, State Attorney William Gladson, met with the protesters and urged patience while the investigation continues.
“If we are going to make a case we need as much time and as much evidence as possible,” Gladson said. “I don’t want to compromise any criminal investigation and I’m not going to do that.”
Ajike “AJ” Owens’ children were playing in a field near an apartment complex when suddenly, a white woman came from the area and began yelling racial slurs at them, according to an account from attorney Benjamin Crump.
One of the children accidentally left behind their iPad which the woman seized. When the child went to retrieve it, the woman allegedly threw the device both hitting the boy and cracking the screen.
The woman also allegedly threw a pair of roller skates at the children as well.
Naturally, the children went back home to tell their mother what happened. Owens then walked over to the neighbor’s door to speak to her about the incident but things took a fatal turn.
“She knocked on the door, and at that point, the woman allegedly shot through the door, hitting AJ, who later died from her injuries,” Crump said in the statement.
At a news conference Monday, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods did not confirm or reject Crump’s account, telling reporters he was not “going to stand here and tell you what they’re putting out there is inaccurate. It’s just I don’t know yet.” Here’s what the sheriff said he does know:
There had been a long-standing “neighborhood feud” between the shooter and Owens about her children.
Owens, 35, was killed in the Friday night shooting, Woods said. The women lived in the rolling hills south of Ocala, a north Florida city that is the heart of the state’s horse country.
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