A White woman who was arrested in the fatal shooting of her Black neighbor in Ocala, Fla., was charged Monday with assault and manslaughter with a firearm, a state attorney announced.
In early June, Susan Lorincz, 58, shot and killed Ajike “AJ” Owens, a 35-year-old mother of four, over a dispute involving Owens’s children, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said. Lorincz was arrested days later. If convicted, she could face up to 30 years in prison.
When deciding on the charges to file, State Attorney William Gladson said in a statement that his office also considered second-degree murder, which Owens’s family had advocated for. While he described Lorincz’s actions as “deplorable,” he said there was “insufficient evidence” to support that charge.
“I can assure you that the decision was thoughtful and made without consideration of any factors other than the specific facts of this terrible crime,” Gladson said.
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Anthony Thomas, an attorney representing the Owens family, told the Associated Press the family still believes “justice demands nothing less” than a second-degree murder charge.
“The failure of the prosecutor to charge Susan with what truly reflected her wanton, reckless behavior undermines our ability to even get real accountability,” Thomas said.
Amanda Sizemore, an attorney for Lorincz, who is being held at the Marion County Jail, said she had no comment Monday.
On June 2, Owens’s children were playing near Lorincz’s home, according to the sheriff’s office. Lorincz argued with them, yelling and throwing a roller skate at one of Owens’s sons, the office said.
The child and his older brother then went to Lorincz’s house to talk with her. She swung an umbrella at them, according to the sheriff’s office.
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Later that day, Owens went to Lorincz’s house, knocking and asking her neighbor to come outside after she learned from her children what had happened, according to the sheriff’s office. Lorincz fired a gunshot through the door, hitting Owens in the chest while one of her sons was standing next to her, the office said.
Share this articleShareOfficers who arrived tried to save Owens, according to Sheriff Billy Woods, but she later died.
Lorincz said she acted in self-defense, alleging that Owens had tried to break down her door, the sheriff’s office said. She also claimed that Owens had “previously attacked her.”
Ben Crump, another attorney representing the Owens family, said in a statement this month that while the children were playing near Lorincz’s home, she yelled at them, “calling them racial slurs.” He also alleged that when Owens’s sons were playing in the field by Lorincz’s house, they accidentally left behind an iPad, which Lorincz took and later threw at one of the children when they returned to her home to retrieve it.
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In an interview with MSNBC on June 5, Crump called Owens’s death an “unjustifiable killing.” At the time, Lorincz had not been arrested while officials considered whether the incident was protected by Florida’s “stand your ground” law.
“It is unacceptable,” Crump said. “And we can’t send this message that it’s okay in America to shoot Black people for ringing doorbells like Ralph Yarl in Kansas City or now like AJ Owens in Ocala, Florida.”
Lorincz was arrested June 6, though Gladson, the state attorney, said Monday that the case did not have the evidence of “hatred, spite, ill will or evil intent toward the victim at the time of the killing” to support a second-degree murder charge.
In the MSNBC interview, Owens’s mother, Pamela Dias, said her daughter was an “amazing testament to all mothers in this world,” someone who “lived for her children.”
She said Owens did what “any parent would do” when she confronted her neighbor about the incident with her sons.
“She simply knocked on the door,” Dias said.
Maham Javaid, Justine McDaniel and Annabelle Timsit contributed to this report.
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