OCALA — A woman accused of shooting and killing a mother in front of her kids last week in a shocking end to an ongoing feud between neighbors was arrested Tuesday.
Susan Louise Lorincz, 58, who is white, was charged with 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 Tuesday to arrest and charge Lorincz, who fired the gun and killed Owens 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.”
Jail records show she was booked, but did not list a lawyer who could speak on her behalf. Lorincz did not attend the first court hearing on Wednesday since she’s undergoing medical testing, sheriff’s officials said in a statement.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/452KW4ZRIBHP6TMKRVTY3W4SSY.jpg "This image taken from video provided by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office shows Susan Lorincz, center, after her arrest in Ocala Tuesday. Lorincz is accused of fatally shooting her neighbor, Ajike Owens, a Black mother of four.")
“This is not a difficult case,” Crump said. He called on the state attorney’s office to “zealously prosecute” the shooter.
Before the shooting unfolded, Owens’ children had been playing in a field near the shooter’s apartment, officials said. One of the children forgot his iPad on the ground and was reportedly taken by the suspect.
“The white woman had it, would not give it back to my grandson,” Mr Diaz told MSNBC, noting that the suspect allegedly used the “n-word,” the “b-word” and other profanities. “He went home to tell his mother, as any normal child would .... [My daughter] simply knocked on the door.”
Witnesses informed law enforcement that the suspect had allegedly thrown roller skates at Owens’ children, prompting the mother-of-four to come knocking at the woman’s door to confront her.
“I wish our shooter would have called us instead of taking actions into her own hands,” Mr Woods said on Monday, before the charges were filed. “I wish Ms Owens would have called us in the hopes we could have never gotten to the point at which we are here today.”
The tragedy, on 2 June, followed a long history of altercation between the victim and her killer. Since January 2021, Mr Woods said, deputies have responded at least a half-dozen times in connection with the feuding between Owens and the woman who eventually shot her.
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