A woman accused of fatally shooting her Florida neighbor in a dispute involving the slain woman’s children was arrested Tuesday, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said.
Susan Louise Lorincz, 58, was arrested on charges of manslaughter with a firearm, negligence, assault and two counts of assault, the sheriff’s office said. said in a statement.
Lorincz, who is white, is accused of fatally shooting Ajike “AJ” Owens, who was black, through a locked door in Ocala on Friday night, according to the sheriff’s office.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Owens family, and others have demanded an arrest and raised questions about race and Florida’s «stand your ground» self-defense law.
«While we are relieved that the woman apparently responsible for the tragic murder of Ajike ‘AJ’ Owens has been arrested, we are no less concerned that accountability has taken so long because archaic laws like Stand Your Ground exist,» lawyers of the Owens family. , including Crump, said in a statement Tuesday night.
The shooting happened around 9:00 p.m. Friday. Over time, Lorincz had become angry with the Owens children playing in a nearby field and «engaged in an argument» with the children, the sheriff’s office said.
During the argument, Lorincz threw a roller skate at Owens’ 10-year-old son and then threw an umbrella at him and a brother, according to the sheriff’s office. Owens then knocked on Lorincz’s door multiple times, and Lorincz shot him through the door, the sheriff’s office said.
Owens was shot in the upper chest and died, he said.
Lorincz told investigators that she acted in self-defense «and that Owens had been trying to break down her door before she discharged her firearm,» the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Sheriff Billy Woods said investigators were legally required to investigate whether Florida’s «stand your ground» law applied before making an arrest.
Woods said Owens’ murder was not justified under the self-defense law.
«It was just murder,» he said.
In an interview the previous Tuesday, Crump said there could be no justification for the murder.
«You should in no way feel that this person knocking on your door could cause you death or imminent bodily harm,» Crump said. “And if he was afraid, call the police. Why shoot through a metal door?
Owens was the mother of four children, attorneys for the family said.
Lorincz fired a shot through the door, the sheriff’s office said.
Crump said Owens’ children had been playing in a field near an apartment complex and the woman who would later shoot him yelled at the children. One of the children left behind an iPad, which the woman took, she said.
A sheriff’s incident report, which is redacted with names blacked out, mentions that deputies were told at the scene that a woman who was described at the time as a suspect had taken an iPad.
Deputies had been responding to a trespassing call that night when they were told there was a shooting, and arrived to find Owens lying on the grass gasping for breath after being shot, according to an incident report from the MD’s office. sheriff.
There have been disputes between the two women in the past, the sheriff said.
Manslaughter with a firearm is a felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison, the sheriff’s office said.
It was not immediately clear Tuesday night if Lorincz had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
Ocala is a city of about 63,000 about 60 miles northwest of Orlando.