A Florida woman who shot her neighbor to death last week amid a dispute over the victim’s children playing outside is now facing criminal charges, WESH-TV reports.
Late Tuesday, Ocala police arrested 58-year-old Susan Lorincz and charged her with manslaughter in connection with the fatal shooting of 35-year-old Ajike Owens, a mother of four. Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods posted a video to Facebook early Wednesday morning announcing the arrest and showing Lorincz being escorted by police.
“The justice we have all been seeking has been served,” Woods said in the video.
The arrest comes after community members pressed officials to charge Lorincz. Benjamin Crump, the family’s attorney, alleged that Lorincz uttered racial slurs at the kids before Owens went to the woman’s apartment. Owens and her children are black and Lorincz is white.
In the video, Woods explained that investigators took time to carefully review the facts to determine whether Lorincz acted in self-defense and was justified in using force under the state’s “stand your ground” law. Investigators ultimately determined that Lorincz did not have a valid reason to shoot Owens.
“And we got a bigger picture, the full picture. And my detectives wanted to make sure that we closed all the loopholes, so she would not have the defense of using the ‘stand your ground’ law, and this is not ‘stand your ground,” Woods told Fox 35.
“Let me make that clear — this was not ‘stand your ground.’ It was an unjustified shooting.”
Owens’ children were playing in a field on Friday when the accused shooter allegedly yelled at the youth and threw skates at them, hitting one of the kids. The young mother then approached Lorincz about the incident.
Woods said the two women had been at odds for years and that police were called to at least six fights between them since January 2021.
Lorincz has been charged with manslaughter with a firearm and culpable negligence, the latter because at least one of Owens’ kids was present during the shooting. All the children, who range in age from 2 to 12, were at the scene when officers first responded, WKMG-TV reports.
Prosecutors also have charged Lorincz with assault and battery against the children for when she threw skates at them and hit one of them. The state also alleges that Lorincz swung an umbrella at two of the kids when they went to her door.
Lorincz allegedly told police that Owens was attempting to break down her door. However, neighbor Lauren Smith, whose home is across the street from the scene of the shooting, told The Associated Press that Owens did not have a weapon and did not initiate an altercation with the shooter.
Smith said after the shooting, one of Owens’ sons was yelling “They shot my mama, they shot my mama,” according to the AP. She ran across the street and began chest compressions on Owens.
Lorincz “was angry all the time that the children were playing out there,” Smith told the AP. “She would say nasty things to them.”
If convicted, Lorincz faces up to 30 years in prison on the manslaughter charge alone.
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[Feature Photo: Police escort Susan Lorincz after her arrest/Marion County Sheriff’s Office]
