An Ocala, Florida woman who shot her Black neighbor through her front door will not be charged with murder.
Susan Lorincz, 58, was arrested on June 6 and charged with the fatal shooting of Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old mother of four.
The senseless killing sparked protests around the country. Activists demonstrated outside the prosecutor’s office and demanded a 1st-degree murder charge against Lorincz.
However, State Attorney Bill Gladson said there was insufficient evidence to charge Lorincz with murder.
Instead, she is charged with manslaughter which is punishable by probation or up to 12 years in prison.
“Understandably, emotions run high, particularly with senseless, violent crimes,” Gladson said on Monday. “However, I cannot allow any decision to be influenced by public sentiment, angry phone calls or further threats of violence, as I have received in this case. To allow that to happen would also be improper and a violation of my oath as a prosecutor and as a lawyer.”
Officials said Lorincz fatally shot Owens through her closed apartment door on Friday, June 2. Lorincz told officials she shot Owens in self-defense.
Owens went to the neighbor’s apartment to confront her after she threw a pair of skates at Owens’ children, hitting one of them.
Deputies responding to a 911 trespassing call found Owens laying in the grass in front of Lorincz’s apartment. She was suffering from a gunshot wound.
Owens was transported to a nearby hospital where she was later pronounced dead.
The neighbor’s door “never opened” when Owens went to confront her, the victim’s mother, Pamela Dias, told reporters at a news conference on Monday.
“My daughter…was shot and killed with her 9-year-old son standing next to her. She had no weapon, she posed no imminent threat to anyone,” Dias said.
According to a neighbor, Lorincz had taken a child’s iPad before throwing the skates.
Owens’ family said Lorincz frequently yelled at Owens and the children and called them racial slurs.
Sheriff Billy Woods said a “rigorous” investigation determined the shooting was not justified.
However, the sheriff previously told reporters Florida’s “stand your ground” law allows people to use deadly force if they believe their lives are in imminent danger.
“That law has specific instructions for us in law enforcement,” the sheriff said on Monday. “Any time that we think, or perceive or believe that that might come into play, we cannot make an arrest, the law specifically says that.”
He added: “I wish our shooter would have called us instead of taking actions into her own hands.”
A GoFundMe raised over $322,000 for Owens’s four children who are between 3 and 12 years old.
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