A Florida woman accused of fatally shooting her neighbor last week in the violent culmination of what the sheriff described as a 2.5-year feud was arrested late on Tuesday, the Marion county sheriff’s office said.
Susan Louise Lorincz, 58, who is white, was arrested on charges of manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, battery and two counts of assault in the death of Ajike Owens, a Black mother of four, Sheriff Billy Woods said in a statement.
Authorities came under pressure on Tuesday to arrest and charge the woman who fired through her front door and killed her neighbor in a case that has put Florida’s divisive “stand your ground” law back into the spotlight.
Woods said that this was not a “stand your ground” case but “simply a killing”.
When interviewed, Lorincz claimed that she acted in self-defense and that Owens had been trying to break down her door prior to her discharging her firearm. Lorincz also claimed that Owens had come after her in the past and had previously attacked her.
Through their investigation – including obtaining the statements of eyewitnesses – detectives were able to establish that Lorincz’s actions were not justifiable under Florida law, a statement from the sheriff’s office said.
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 continued.
“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.”
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.
On Tuesday, a stuffed teddy bear and bouquets marked the area near where Owens was shot. Nearby, children were riding bikes and scooters, and playing basketball. Protesters chanted “No justice, no peace” and “AJ, AJ, AJ,” using Owens’s nickname. They carried signs saying: “Say her name, Ajike Owens” and “It’s about us.”
Outside, the Rev Bernard Tuggerson said the Black community in Ocala had suffered injustices for years. “Marion county is suffering and needs to be healed completely,” he said, adding: “We want answers.”
The sheriff said Owens was shot moments after going to Lorincz’s apartment, who had yelled at Owens’s children as they played in a nearby lot. He also said Lorincz had thrown a pair of skates that hit one of the children.
Deputies responding to a trespassing call at the apartment on Friday night found Owens suffering from gunshot wounds. She later died at a hospital.
Before the confrontation, Lorincz had been yelling racial slurs at the children, according to a statement from civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Owens’s family.
English (US)